A history of Devonshire : with sketches of its leading worthies

A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE.

HIS TOR Y OF DE VONSHIRE.

WITH

SKETCHES OF ITS LEADING WORTHIES.

BY

R. N. WORTH, F.G.S, ETC,

AUTHOR OF

THK HISTORIES OF PLYMOUTH AN D DEVONPORT,' ' TOURISTS GUIDE TO
DEVONSHIRE; 'WEST-COUNTRY GARLAND; ETC.

CHEAP EDITION.

LONDON :
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.

1895.

670

,^/'

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE . «

I. EARLY HISTORY . . «

II. EXETER .

III. EXMOUTH AND THE EXE ESTUARY

IV. AXMINSTER AND THE AXE. <
V. SIDMOUTH . . . ~\.t

VI. HONITON .
VII. OTTERY ST. MARY .
VIII. COLLOMPTON AND BRADNINCH
IX. TIVERTON .
X. BAMPTON .

XI. SOUTH MOLTON . *..

XII. CREDITON . .

XIII. CHULMLEIGH . .' .

XIV. BARNSTAPLE

XV. ILFRACOMBE AND LYNTON .
XVI. LUNDY ISLAND .

XVII. BIDEFORD .

XVIII. GREAT TORRINGTON . *
XIX. HOLSWORTHY AND HATHERLEIGH

PAGE

vii

I

12

47
59

74

79
84

87
91

98
101

105

112

H5
128

136
141
154
l62

v.l Contents.

CHAPTER PAGE

XX. OKEHAMPTON . . -, . . 167

XXI. LYDFORD . . * ''• • •• J73

XXII. TAVISTOCK . . . .. . .179

XXIII. BUCKLAND MONACHORUM . . . . 1 94

XXIV. PLYMOUTH, DEVONPORT, AND STONEHOUSK . 2OI
XXV. PLYMPTON . . . . . .230

XXVI. MODP.URY . . . . . .240

XXVII. KINGSBRIDGE AND SALCOMBE . . . 245

XXVIII. TOTNES . . , . . 254

XXIX. DARTMOUTH . . . . .267

XXX. ASHBURTON AND BUCKFASTLEIGH . ; • 2T7

XXXI. TORQUAY, PAIGNTON, AND BRIXHAM . .291
XXXII. NEWTON ...... 305

XXXIII. TEIGNMOUTH AND DAWLISH . . . 311

XXXIV. CHUDLEIGH AND BOVEY TRACEY . . .316
XXXV. MORETONHAMPSTEAD AND CHAGFORD . . 320

XXXVI. DARTMOOR . . • • - • .326

XXXVII. DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE . . r • 335

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

SIXTY years have passed since the last successful attempt
was made to produce a complete History of Devonshire ;
and the volume of the brothers Lysons has remained from
that day to the present the most valuable contribution to
the general historical literature of the county. Of late,
however, many revisions have been made in local history :
and though Devon has not again been treated as a whole,
there are few of its corners which have not been made
the subject of independent and painstaking research ;
while immense masses of original materials have been
collected which were either unknown or inaccessible when
the Lysonses were engaged on their great work. With
what has been done at the State Paper Office, all who
are interested in these topics are familiar. The local
inquiries of the Historical Manuscripts Commission have
thrown great light upon many obscure places of the
Devonian record. Much attention has been paid to the
archives of public bodies. The muniments of the Cor-
poration of Exeter, and of the Dean and Chapter of
Exeter Cathedral, have been arranged and calendared by
Mr. Stuart Moore, who has also investigated those of the

viii Introductory Note.

Corporation of Dartmouth. The records of the Cor-
poration of Plymouth have in like manner been brought
together and indexed by the author ; while Mr. J. R.
Chanter has carefully examined the muniments of Barn-
staple ; and Mr. E. Windeatt those of Totnes.

This acquisition of new material, together with the
adoption of stricter methods of inquiry and the more
careful investigation of authorities, has led, in the course
of the last thirty years more especially, to the re-writing
in detail of much Devonian history. Among those who
have taken a prominent part in this work, and to whom
this volume is most largely indebted, are the late Sir John
Bowring, the late Dr. Oliver, the late Rev. S. Rowe, the
late Mr. R. J. King, the late Mr. J. B. Davidson, Messrs.
P. F. and J. S. Amery, Mr. C. Spence Bate, F.R.S.,
Mr. J. R. Chanter, Messrs. W. Cotton, F.S.A., and
R. W. Cotton, Mr. F. T. Elworthy, Mr. P. O.
Hutchinson, Mr. R. Dymond, F.S.A., Mr. T. Kerslake,
F.S.A., Mr. P. Q. Karkeek, Mr. G. W. Ormerod, F.G.S.,
Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S., Mr. G. Pycroft, Mr.
J. Brooking Rowe, F.S.A., F.L.S. (whose presidential
address at Crediton to the Devonshire Association con-
tains a full list of printed books and MSS. dealing with
local topography and history), Mr. E. Windeatt, and
Mr. J. T. White. So many points of interest, however,
still continue unsettled, and the history of so many
places and families, after all that has been done, still
remains to be explored, that the work of the Devon-
shire historian must yet be largely tentative. W7hile
presenting, therefore, what it is hoped will be found an
accurate statement of the present position of historical

Introductory Note. ix

inquiry in Devon, the need of further investigation is
fully recognised by the writer, with the certainty that
much still accepted as historical must, sooner or later,
be set aside by a better informed and more searching
criticism.

More than a sketch of the great history of Devon
and of its famous muster-roll of worthies this work
cannot pretend to be. A county which is all but the
largest in the kingdom; which has afforded the earliest
traces of the existence of man in these islands ; which
has never from the dawn of recorded history occupied
a secondary place in the national life; which again and
again in the hour of England's need has found the
man; whose worthies, century by century, claim the
first rank in every class — soldiers, sailors, lawyers, divines,
inventors, poets, artists, explorers, statesmen, men of
science ; which, by the staunchness of its common folk
no less than the courage and skill of their leaders, has
more than once proved the pivot whereon the destinies
of the State have hung; — the history of such a county
is the history of England, and must be rather hinted at
than expressed in the compass of these pages. But they
will not be altogether unworthy of the noble Devon
whose record they set forth, if their readers judge of what
is wanting by what is said ; and are led for themselves
to fill in an outline which it is hoped may at least claim
the merit of being inclusive, definite, and clear.

One word as to the arrangement. Neither of the
existing units of county organization supplied exactly
what was needed for the purpose in hand. It was there-
fore decided to treat the places of chief historical interest

Introductory Note.

in their respective localities as centres, and to group
around them their more immediate territorial associa-
tions. The order is mainly topographical. Beginning with
Exeter, under which head — as subsequently under Ply-
mouth— general points of county history are treated, a
circuit is taken through East, North, West, and South
Devon, and the survey ends in the great central waste of
Dartmoor.

HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY HISTORY.

DEVONSHIRE stands alone among the counties of England
in its peculiar relation to the question of the antiquity of
the human race. Traces of Palaeolithic man are indeed
scattered throughout the kingdom, but in Devon only is
there fairly consecutive evidence. The contemporaneity
of man with the extinct quaternary mammalia was lifted
from the level of argument to that of demonstration by
the discoveries at the Windmill Hill Cave, at Brixham,
in 1858. The retrospect of Devon is thus inferior in
antiquity to that of no part of the British Isles, if we
assign due proportion and weight to the inferential and
material narrative which commonly passes under the name
of prehistoric ; and, moreover, it is a record of singular
completeness.

That the men of Palaeolithic times inhabited, or at
least visited, the whole county of Devon, is proved by the
manner in which their traces have been found on every
hand. The caves at Brixham and Torquay ; the submerged
forests in Barnstaple Bay, and at other points of the
Devon coast ; the beds of the rivers ; the depths of the
peat-bogs ; the wild wastes of the moors ; the cliffs, as at

I

History of Devonshire.

Croyde and Bovisand ; the low-lying gravels of the Axe
Valley — these teem with the flint-chips, arrow-heads, axes,
and scrapers of the earliest Devonians who have left a
trace behind. Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S., has advanced cogent
reasons for the belief that the earliest men of the most
famous of the Devon caves, Kent's Hole, Torquay, were
* inter-glacial, if not pre-glacial.' The ' earliest men '-
for it is a remarkable fact that the investigations in Kent's
Cavern have yielded evidence of the existence of man in
Devon from the Palaeolithic, in the Neolithic, the Bronze,
and the Iron Ages.

Next to the Palaeolithic men of Devon came the Barrow-
builders ; but the gap between the two is so wide that,
while the cave-men of Palaeolithic date were of the period
of the extinct cave mammalia, no barrow has yielded even
fragmentary traces of these animals.

Of the two great classes of barrows, the long and the
round, the latter only occur in Devon. This is a curious
fact ; for long-barrows are peculiarly abundant in the
adjoining counties of Dorset and of Wilts, and round-
barrows yet exist in Devon by hundreds, almost thousands.
The inference seems either that the long-barrow builders
did not dwell farther west than Dorset, or that all
vestiges of them have been destroyed on the western
side of the Dorsetshire border. In all probability the
Devonians of the long-barrow period were of a different
race to the long-barrow people — possibly the direct
descendants of the later Palaeolithic men, supplanted
and driven into the corners of the country by the long-
headed long-barrow builders, as these were supplanted and
driven by the round-headed builders of the round-barrows,
and as in historic times Kelt and Saxon were in turn
hunters and hunted. The long-barrow period seems to
be represented in the West by chambered round-barrows,
and by interments which have received the trivial name
of * giants' graves.' The most remarkable examples of

Early History.

these were discovered at Lundy Island, where two stone
kists were found to contain two gigantic skeletons, the
larger covered with limpet-shells. Like the long-barrows,
with which they are presumably contemporaneous, these
' giants' graves ' and chambered-barrows belong to the
Age of Stone.

The round-barrows are the most important factor in
the earlier history of Devon. Abounding in every part
of the county, either continuously or by record, they
illustrate almost ever}- variety of barrow interment asso-
ciated with the Bronze Age, thus indicating the occupation
of the West by a bronze-using people over a very long
time. How far back this may extend we cannot say.
The Barrow Period was undoubtedly of great duration ;
but there is good reason to believe that, barrow interment
continued down even to post-Roman days. It is im-
portant to note, as indicating variations in race, in time,
or in custom, of a very important character, that inter-
ment by cremation is all but universal in the barrows of
Devon and of Cornwall ; while in Wilts and Dorset the
proportion of unburnt bodies is as high as a third and a
fourth. Moreover, while in Devon the few unburnt in-
terments are in the contracted form, as usual, in Dorset
the extended position prevails.

One of the most difficult questions of Western Archaeo-
logy is that of the age and origin of the Bronze Period,
to which these round-barrows in the main belong. It is
seen almost from the first in somewhat settled form, and
it is traceable downwards until it merges in historic
civilization ; but its connection with the Stone Period is
to all appearance hopelessly obscured. There is, how-
ever, evidence of vast antiquity. The Western Peninsula
was the chief, if not the only, source of tin for the bronze-
users of Europe, save, perchance, upon Asiatic confines.
The tin-mining of the West, therefore, dates back to the
introduction of the use of metals on the Continent ; and

i — 2

History of Devonshire.

when we attempt to give to this great epoch in the history
of man a definite chronological position, ' Cornwall proves
that tin-streaming was carried on at Carnon and Pentuan
at a time when the mammoth either still existed in the
West of England, or had not long disappeared ; and when
the general level of Devon and Cornwall was at least
thirty feet higher than it is now.' Within the historic
period no such change has taken place. Considerations
of this kind led Dr. Wibel to conclude that the civilization
of the Bronze Age originated in the West of England;
while M. Furnet has suggested a European civilization
contemporary with that of the East, dealing with minerals
before the arrival of the Kelts and their intervention in
metallurgy. The fact that the early bronze weapons
were evidently made for a small-limbed people gives
marked support to the latter theory.

That there was a distinct and well-marked civilization
in the West in pre-Roman times is indeed shown, not
only by the references of Greek and Roman writers to the
ancient tin trade of the Cassiterides with the Mediterranean
ports, but by the relics of the later Bronze Age which
Devon has yielded. Coins of the type which Dr. Evans,
F.R.S., assigns to about 150 B.C. have been found in the
county at Cotley, near Axminster, Exeter, and Mount
Batten, near Plymouth ; while an ancient cemetery in the
last locality has yielded mirrors, and various implements,
ornaments, and weapons of bronze (now preserved in the
Museum of the Plymouth Institution), all the characters
of which are Keltic, and not Roman. In some localities
such remains would undoubtedly suggest a post-Roman
origin. Here they are evidently the final types of the
older pre-Roman civilization ; not necessarily of any great
antiquity, nor free from foreign characters, but influenced
alike in origin and progress by an earlier intercourse with
the civilized world than that of Roman date.

This superior civilization of the West was probably the

Early History.

leading cause of the peculiar form taken by the Roman
occupation in the ancient Keltic Kingdom of the Dun-
monii, which included both Devon and Cornwall.
Attempts have been made to prove the existence of
Roman roads and Roman stations throughout the extreme
West of England, but without success. The so-called
Roman roads of the older antiquaries are really the
British trackways, which here as elsewhere the Romans
adapted to their purpose. The British Fosseway ran
from Exeter over Dartmoor, crossed the Tamar near
Tavistock, and continued along the central highlands
of Cornwall by Cenion (Truro) to Giano (Marazion) in
Mount's Bay. There was only one Roman station of any
note within Devonian confines — the Isca Dunmoniorum
of the * Itinerary ' of Antonine. This undoubtedly is
Exeter. Moridunum, which in the ' Itinerary ' intervenes
beween Isca and Durnovaria (Dorchester), was in Devon,
but the site has not been clearly identified.

The long-accepted story of Roman conquest and sway
in Devon rests solely upon a mistaken identification and
a forgery. The false identification is the gloss of Geoffrey
of Monmouth, or one of his editors, that the Caer Pen-
saulcoit which Vespasian besieged was Exeter, instead of
Penselwood, on the Wilts and Somerset borderland. The
forgery is the ' Chronicle ' attributed to Richard of Ciren-
cester. There is thus no evidence that the Dunmonii
were ever conquered by the Romans ; and the conclusion
of Mr. Beale Poste appears irresistible — that 'they re-
tained their nationality under their own native princes.'
The same long-continued foreign intercourse which had
given the Western Peninsula its superiority in civilization
prompted its residents rather to welcome than oppose the
people with whom they were on such friendly terms, and
from whom they derived so much advantage.

Exeter, indeed, was both a Roman station of import-
ance and the head of the Roman power in the district.

History of Devonshire.

The only other points in Devon that appear by their
names to indicate the presence of Roman soldiery are on
the same parallel, near North Lew — Chester Moor, Scob-
chester, and Wickchester. West of Exeter no proofs of
Roman occupation, beyond an individual settlement here
and there, have ever been found, though traces of Roman
intercourse are by no means wanting. North and east
of Exeter there are only remains of Roman villas, as at
Hannaditches, near Seaton, while another is said to have
occupied the crest of a cliff near Hartland. The full
significance of these facts, in considering the character
of the Roman Period in Devon, is best seen when we
compare non- Roman Devon with thoroughly Romanized
Somerset, in which Roman structural and other relics of
importance — temples, potteries, villas, mines — have been
found in over one hundred places.

The later Dunmonii were a numerous as well as a
fairly civilized race. In every part of the county there
are to be found earthworks, some of very considerable
magnitude, which have commonly been classed by anti-
quaries as hill-forts, camps, or castles. By far the greater
majority of these are, however, simply the enclosures of
ancient villages or towns — the evidence, not of long-
continued or desperate warfare, but of a settled and
comparatively dense population.

Whether, when the Romans left Britain, and the Britons
had to rely upon their own efforts for protection against
northern and sea-borne marauders, Devon shared to the
full extent in the general despair is doubtful. The pre-
servation of an independent, or quasi-independent, status
would tell in its favour. It is impossible to credit the
assertion that Picts and Scots carried their raids so far
west. Probably Dunmonia, continuing its trade in
metals with the East, enjoyed for a while comparative
quiet, and was one of the last places visited by Saxon or
by Dane. The Saxons were familiar with the Channel

Early History.

coast, 'the Saxon shore,' long ere they reached Devon
and Cornwall ; and the Danes make their first historical
appearance in the West as the allies of the Cornish race
against their own Teutonic kin in the reign of Ecgberht,
when they were defeated by the Saxons in a great battle
just over the Tamar at Kingston Down.

Obscurity shrouds the advent of the Saxons in Devon.
The only important contemporary record is the ' Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle;' and that does not carry us further back
than the eighth century in its Devonian references.
Saxon intercourse with Devon began in an individual
form, and by colonization rather than by conquest. When
the Saxons of Wessex reached the county they had
become Christians, and had begun, as Mr. J. B. David-
son says, ' to make progress by colonization as well as by
the sword.' And the late Mr. R. J. King showed how
in all probability settlements were pushed beyond the
border ' by small bodies of men, either by force or peace-
ably, but on the whole establishing themselves in more
peaceful fashion than would be the case when an entire
district lay at the mercy of the conqueror after a great
battle.' The peculiar character and distribution of the
place-names of Devon lends great support to this view ;
and as immigrant peoples usually accepted the place-
names they found until further distinctions became neces-
sary, and as the Keltic names of Devon can only have
been retained where there was continuity of occupation,
or association, it follows that wherever in Devon such
names are most plentiful, there we have the best proof of
extended intercourse and early Saxon colonization.

This would not have been the case, however, had not
the Saxon completed by war what he had begun in peace.
Colonization in the end did give place to conquest. Mr.
J. B. Davidson has shown conclusively that the Saxon
annexation of Devon must be placed somewhere between
710 — in which year Ine fought the Welsh king Gereint,

8 History of Devonshire.

and shortly after which he made Taunton the chief defence
of his new frontier — and 823, in which the Weala and
the Defena — that is, the men of Cornwall and the men
of Devon— fought a battle at Gafulford, probably an
ancient passage on the Tamar. In 710 the whole force
of Devon and Cornwall was wielded by Gereint ; in 823
the men of Devon and the men of Cornwall were mar-
shalled as two opposing hosts. But, inasmuch as there
is no reason to suppose that Ine pushed his conquests
further, and as the * Chronicles ' expressly state that in 813
Ecgberht harried the West Wealas, while William of
Malmesbury defines that monarch's first great military
act as the conquest of Cornwall, the possible limit of the
subjugation of Devon is narrowed between the years 728
and 800. Of the kings of Wessex who fill this interval,
the only one to whom the conquest can be assigned is
Cynewulf — 755-784 — who is recorded to have fought many
battles against the Brit-Wealas. It is possible that
William of Malmesbury may have used the word Corn-
wall to include part of Devon, in which case the work
begun by Cynewulf was completed by Ecgberht. If he
employed that term with modern limitations, Cynewulf
brought all Devon under his sway.

A theory that there was a partial conquest of Devon by
the Saxons, and that the Exe became a frontier between
the Welsh and English, has been held by several dis-
tinguished authorities, including the late Sir Francis
Palgrave. But the data are insufficient. Sir F. Pal-
grave based his hypothesis upon an agreement ascribed
to the reign of yESelred, between certain Dunsseta. Read-
ing this Devnsseta, or Defena, Sir Francis interpreted it
to be an agreement ' between the Wylisc Devonshire men
and the Englisc Devonshire men.' The reference, how-
ever, is not to Devonshire men at all, but to certain
' dwellers on the downs,' probably inhabitants of Wales
proper.

Early History.

True, William of Malmesbury states that in 926
^Selstan drove the Britons out of Exeter, which they
had inhabited sharing equal rights with the English, and
fixed the boundary of his province along the Tamar. Mr.
T. Kerslake has also shown that Exeter is really divisible
by the dedications of the ancient parishes into British
and Saxon quarters. A certain joint occupancy of that
city must therefore be held proven. It is further probable
that, at the time of Cynewulf's invasion, Exeter was more
Saxon than Keltic ; and there is reason to believe that
then, and long after, it enjoyed a kind of independence.
But however this may be, it is manifest that under
^Selstan the county at large was cleared of the Keltic
race — save, perhaps, in a few isolated spots — and that
whatever Keltic blood there is now in Devon must date
from before the Saxon Conquest, or have been acquired
mainly from Cornwall, since directly it is tested this
' ingenious theory of a bisected Devonshire, half Saxon,
half British, with Exeter as a border fortress, and the
river Exe as a boundary, vanishes into thin air.'

One of the most cogent arguments against the theory
is the fact that we find no trace in the place-names of
Devon of a graduated Keltic element westward, which
must be apparent if the county had been so parcelled, or
the Saxon expulsion of the Britons had not been complete
and final. The Saxon element in the local topographical
nomenclature is quite as decided on the eastern bank of
the Tamar as it is upon the north coast ; and the Keltic
names in the former locality are not a whit more plentiful
than in some other parts. It has been thought that the
recesses of Dartmoor may have retained their Keltic
population long after the rest of Devon had fallen under
Saxon rule ; but this cannot have been so, for Dartmoor
has hardly a Keltic name left, save upon the borders, with
which Saxon dwellers in the lowlands must have been
more or less familiar.

io History of Devonshire.

We may call in aid, too, the Saxon place-names to
supply the great gaps in the recorded history of the
county which the ' Saxon Chronicle ' fails to cover. They
show that the early Saxon occupation of Devon must
have been mainly of the individual and peaceful kind
already suggested. The ordinary enclosure of the ' tun *
is scattered throughout the county, and is not predominant
anywhere, though somewhat less frequent in the north-
west than the south. The more defensible ' stocks ' are
commonly associated with the navigable rivers, then the
great highways of piratical marauders, and needing rally-
ing-points and strongholds, especially when Danish inroads
became periodical. The frequent ' burys ' are in many
cases not of direct Saxon origin, but mark the site ot
some old earthwork. The three most distinctive and
notable marks of Saxon occupation are to be found in the
affixes ' worthy,' * cot,' and ' hay,' which have a very
peculiar and suggestive distribution. ' Worthy ' — probably
in the main a farm-place, with enclosures to protect the
cattle from the ravages of wild beasts — is most common
on the borders of Dartmoor, and particularly to the south
and west, where not only the name but the thing still
exists in the traces of the original walls and banks.
' Cot,' which shows the fullest evidence of individual
action, and on the smallest scale, is almost peculiar to
the west and north-west. ' Hay,' which represents an
enclosure of a field character, has its chief centre in the
east.

There has, so far, only been found in Devon one definite
trace of the Teutonic mark — the existence of a certain
tenure of * landscore ' in the neighbourhood of Plymouth.
But the mark would only survive in a modified form
when Devon was absorbed into Wessex. The existence
of the family group is not much clearer. Personal and
individual settlements abound, and there are some few
traces of associative effort ; but we do not find, nor can

Early History. u

we expect to find, precisely the same polity as is presented
by the shires and kingdoms first settled by the Saxons,
which was complete of its kind. The constitution of
Devon, however, is purely Saxon from village to shire :
each of its hundreds has a Saxon name, each of its
ancient municipalities originated in a Saxon community ;
and in some of its towns, as Tavistock and Ashburton,
the elder form of government is still easily distinguishable
in the continued existence of the portreeve, or portgerefa,
of the original free township, elected by the freeholders as
representatives of the estates of the original settlers.

As far as we may judge from the hundred lists, as
given in ' Domesday,' the original hundreds of Devon
numbered twenty-six, which would give a Saxon popula-
tion of the county when Saxon government was first
completely established of about 15,000. The population
enumerated in ' Domesday ' is 17,434 ; and the free
dwellers would not make the total exceed some 25,000.

But the purport of this chapter is mainly to summarize
the prehistoric times of Devon — those antecedent to the
Saxon Conquest. That end served, the further details of
the county history will be found under the various
heads.

CHAPTER II.

EXETER.

THOSE who believe that this island derives its name from
Brutus, the Trojan, will have no difficulty in accepting
the allied legend that before Brute built London he
founded Exeter. But as these once popular articles of
faith are sadly at a discount, we may dismiss them with-
out further concern. The origin of the city is really
unknown. The hill round which the Exe flowed long
ages since, as it flows still, was chosen by the Kelts for
the site of one of their towns, and it may have had a
yet earlier appropriation. When the Romans made
the castrum of the Exe the headquarters of a legion
and the chief seat of their power in the extreme West
of England, Exeter was already a place of importance
and antiquity ; and that is all we really know. It may
have been one of the marts where the ancient Briton
trafficked with the merchants of Phoenicia, but the
authority for saying so is very small. Palgrave held that
the city was a free republic before the reduction of the
inhabitants of West Britain, and that it enjoyed fran-
chises and liberties ' before any Anglo-Saxon king had a
crown upon his head or a sceptre in his hand.' At what-
ever date, then, the first hut was built in the forest on the
' red hill ' above the marshes of the Exe, Exeter flashes
into history already a great town. Each race dominant

Exeter. 1 3

in England has made it a stronghold — Kelt, Roman,
Saxon, Dane, and Norman. Hardly a great party in the
State, though its proud motto is Semper fidelis, but has
ruled therein in turn.

A few feet beneath the modern city lie remains which
show that Exeter was no Roman station in name only.
Its claims to be the Isca Dunmoniorum have been
seriously, but fruitlessly, questioned. Roman coins by
the thousand, with pottery and other articles of kindred
origin, have been found in almost every excavation within
the circuit of the ancient walls, and are still discovered.

When the Romans left Exeter it retained a large pro-
portion of the specialized civilization they had imported.
Moreover, its trading status, by keeping up a connection
with the exterior world, would have the effect of con-
tinuing its more polished characteristics. Exeter did not
rise, therefore, to note under the Saxons when it was
chosen as the meeting-place of a Witenagemot, and when
^Eftelstan replaced its rude earthworks by massive walls
and towers. It simply maintained the position which had
belonged to it for ages. So when Eadweard the Con-
fessor transferred thither the See of Devon and Cornwall
from Crediton, Exeter was merely asserting its position,
not only as the chief town of Devon, but as the most im-
portant city of all the West. Never was this shown more
completely than when the Conqueror appeared before its
walls ; and when, in the eloquent words of Dr. Freeman,
Exeter ' stood forth for one moment to claim the rank of
a free imperial city, the chief of a confederation of the
lesser towns of the West — when she, or at least her
rulers, professed themselves willing to receive William
as an external lord, to pay him the tribute which had
been paid to the old kings, but refused to admit him
within her walls as her immediate- sovereign.' And
though the city had to yield, it yielded on such terms as
fairly secured its ancient liberties, and left it still one of

14 History of Devonshire.

the four chief cities of the realm, holding equal rank with
London, York, and Winchester.

There has never been a time of intestine strife, from
the dawn of history down to the Wars of the Common-
wealth, in which Exeter has not been regarded as the
key of the West. Well indeed might the quaint city
chronicler, Izaacke, tell us :

' In midst of Devon, Exeter city, seated
Hath with ten sieges grievously been straitned.'

In the wars between Charles and the Parliament, indeed,
Plymouth, by i+s obstinate and unbroken adhesion to the
popular side, led the fortunes of the Western Peninsula ;
and the possession of Exeter was, for the first time, of
secondary importance. The prestige was recovered,
however, when William of Orange made it the focus of
his operations, and within the walls of Exeter won the
adhesion of Devon, Somerset, and Dorset, and thence a
kingdom.

Forty royal charters are said to have been conferred
upon the ancient city ; and royalty has been a frequent
guest within its walls. Edward IV. gave the Corporation
one of their swords of state : Henry VII. another sword
and a cap of maintenance ; Henry VIII. made it a
county ; Edward VI. rewarded its stubborn resistance to
the Western Rebels by the gift of a manor; Elizabeth
conferred the proud motto ' Semper fidelis,' which candour
compels the admission has been chiefly shown in a staunch
adherence to the ruling powers ; the second Charles, as
his mark of favour, gave the citizens the portrait of his
Exonian sister; the third William re-established the
ancient mint.

Setting aside the story ot the capture of Exeter by
Vespasian as something more than mythical, the first
siege of the city recorded in history, if Matthew of West-
minster is to be accepted as sufficient authority, was in
633, when Penda was the leader of the besiegers and

Exeter. 1 5

Cadwalinus (whose nephew Brian held the city) the chief
of the relieving host. There is nothing intrinsically im-
probable in this ; and it is certain that Saxon influence
had made itself felt in the vicinity at quite as early a
date. There are grounds, however, for believing, as
already shown, that the Saxon made his way in Devon to
a large degree by the more peaceful methods of immigra-
tion, and that it was not until the time of ^Selstan that
Exeter became a thoroughly Saxon town. But long
before ^Ettelstan Exeter had been harried by a foreign
foe, more savage even than the early Saxon. The Danes
took up their winter quarters there in 877, and in 894
their siege of the city was raised by ^Elfred, who com-
mitted the spiritual oversight of the city, and in effect the
ecclesiastical headship of the Saxons in Devon, to his
favourite Asser.

The first great historical disaster recorded of Exeter is
its capture by Swegen in 1003. Two years previously the
Danes in large numbers had landed at Exmouth and
marched on Exeter, which was stoutly defended. The
forces of Devon and Somerset gathered with all speed
under their reeves, Eadsige and Kola, and were utterly
defeated at what is now the suburb of Pinhoe. Then the
Danes burnt the ' hams ' at Pinhoe and Clyst, ' and rode
over the land ; and their " after " was ever worse than
their " former," ' and they returned with great booty to
their ships. There is a curious tradition that a small
annuity received by the vicar of Pinhoe represents a
reward bestowed upon the mass priest of that place for
his skill and daring in procuring a supply of arrows on
this occasion, when the ammunition of the English was
falling short.

When the terrible massacre of the Danes by ^ESelred
in 1002 brought Swegen upon the fated land once more,
no place felt his revenge in more deadly fashion than
Exeter. The city was then in the height of prosperity.

1 6 History of Devonshire.

Its religious establishments were so notable that in after-
days they were said to have conferred upon it the name
of Monkton — a statement for which there is not the least
historical authority. It was populous, and the inhabitants
held out bravely; but they had a traitor within their
walls. The Norman Hugh, favourite of Queen Emma,
and her reeve of the city, on the igth of August, 1003,
admitted the Danes within the walls, and Exeter was so
ravaged with fire and sword that for the while ruin seemed
complete and recovery hopeless. But Cnut favoured it,
and the Confessor raised its chief monastery to cathedral
rank ; and half a century from the Danish sack Exeter
was prosperous once more, with nearly 500 houses.

Nothing indicates more clearly the renewed importance
and independent spirit of Exeter than the answer returned
by the citizens to the Conqueror when he demanded sub-
mission. ' We will neither take any oath to the king
nor allow him to enter our city ; but the tribute which,
following ancient custom, we were wont to give formerly,
the same we will give to him.' But William would have
' no subjects after this fashion.' Marching upon Exeter,
he was met by the civic chiefs, who promised all that he
required, but when they returned were persuaded to forego
their pledges and trust rather to their skill in war and the
strength of their defences. Then, * filled with rage and
wonder,' William assaulted the stubborn town. For
eighteen days he unavailingly assailed it by all the
methods known to the warriors of those times. What
would have been the result had the siege continued it is
hard to say ; but the citizens found that whether William
could break down their active resistance or not, he could
starve them. So they asked for pardon and peace, and
found him clement.

Exeter did not stand quite alone in its opposition to
William. The citizens were stimulated to the course
they took by the presence of Gytha, the mother of

Exeter. 1 7

Harold, who had taken refuge within their walls (she
escaped before the surrender), and they are said to have
roused the sister burghs of Devon to join in their resist-
ance. That Lydford and Barnstaple did so seems proven
by the waste recorded to have been made there since the
Conquest, in ' Domesday.' Totnes, to all appearance, made
quiet submission. Had all the West been united under
one head, and that a capable one, the tide of victory might
have been rolled back, even upon the great Norman chief.
But this was not to be.

The most important result, in one respect, of the sur-
render of Exeter to the Normans was the erection of
Rougemont Castle on the 'red hill' dominating the city
— a site which had been occupied by older defensive works,
but which had never seen anything so elaborate as this
first Norman fortalice of the West of England. Scanty
as the remains now are, they suffice to show that it was
once a citadel of prime importance. Building commenced
in 1068, and could hardly have been finished when, in
the following year, a band of brave Saxons who had taken
up the cause of the sons of Harold assailed the city.
They were easily beaten off, however, with heavy loss by
the Norman garrison, probably helped by the citizens in
their new-found loyalty. The invading host of Godwin
and Edmund were annihilated in a fierce battle on the
banks of the Tavy ; and there was an end once and for
ever of all organized attempts to throw off the hated
Norman yoke. After three years of nearly incessant
conflict the West gave up the struggle. The last Devon-
shire man of note to continue such resistance as might
yet be offered was Sithric the Saxon Abbot of Tavistock,
and he at length joined the famous Here ward in the Camp
of Refuge at Ely.

Such peace as could be enjoyed by a Saxon city held
by a Norman garrison, Exeter had for just seventy years.
Then Baldwin de Redvers, grandson of its first Norman

2

1 8 History of Devonshire.

Governor, made Rougemont a stronghold for Matilda, and
proceeded to oppress the citizens, who, according to
Exonian wont, continued faithful to the ruling powers.
They sent to Stephen for help. Baldwin determined to
destroy the city ere aid could come, and fire and sword
had begun their work, when they were happily stayed by
the appearance of 200 horsemen, Stephen's advanced
guard. Ere long the whole army arrived ; Baldwin's
troops were driven within the castle, and a siege com-
menced, which continued for three months. Force
appeared unavailing, but when the supply of water failed
the castle was surrendered. With it fell the last hopes
of Matilda in the West. The whole strength of her party
in Devon had been concentrated at Exeter. Baldwin's
castle at Plympton had been given up by its garrison
without striking a blow ; and all Baldwin's friends had
submitted to the King with the exception of Alured, son
of Judhel of Totnes, who, abandoning his own indefensible
* strength,' by a clever stratagem joined Baldwin in Rouge-
mont. And once more, in the twelfth century as in the
eleventh, the fate of Exeter was the doom of Devon.

Exeter was one of the many towns upon which John
conferred the right of mayoralty, which here indeed meant
father a change of name for the chief magistrate than the
grant of new civic powrers. The city had formed part of
the dowry of Berengaria ; but it was granted in 1231 to
Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans ; and
in 1265 its first parliamentary representatives were elected.
Twenty years later Edward I. held a Parliament at
Exeter itself, at which a statute was passed to remedy
the abuses of coroners. Edward on this occasion kept
Christmastide within the ancient city. If the Black
Prince, as some authorities assert, landed at Plymouth
on his return from the battle of Poictiers, he passed
through Exeter with his royal captive ; and though this
is very doubtful, it is quite certain that he did visit Exeter

Exeter. 1 9

on more than one occasion, on his way to and from Ply-
mouth, which was his favourite port. In 1388 Exeter
gave the title of Duke to John de Holland, who suffered
attainder in 1399. Restored to his son John in 1443,
after it had been held by Thomas Beaufort, the title was
finally lost by the disinheritance of the third Holland
Duke, Henry, who was reduced to beg his bread in exile.

The city pronounced emphatically on the Lancastrian
side, that generally taken in the West of England.
Henry VI. was entertained for eight days in 1452 with
the best the ' church and city ' could afford, clergy and
citizens sharing the cost. In 1469 it sustained a twelve-
days' siege from Sir William Courtenay of Powderham,
on behalf of Edward IV., which was raised by the media-
tion of the clergy ; and in April, 1470, Clarence and
Warwick made Exeter their refuge, on the failure of their
efforts, before they went to Dartmouth and embarked for
Calais. Margaret was at Exeter after Barnet, arranging
for the final effort which for the time quenched the hopes
of the Lancastrians in blood at Tewkesbury ; and Exeter
was the place where the Lancastrians of the West
mustered under Sir John Arundel and Sir Hugh Courte-
nay. Clarence paid several visits to Devon in the
Lancastrian interest. However, Exeter was able to suit
itself to the times, for when Edward IV. came hither with
his wife and infant son, he was received so loyally that
he gave the Corporation the sword which is still carried
in state before the chief magistrate. But Edward
was well able to enforce his will, and that the citizens
knew.

Their loyalty to the ruling powers was even more
plainly manifested when, in 1483, Richard III. came into
the West. Edward had been content with a purse of
100 nobles; Richard was offered, and 'graciously ac-
cepted,' 200. Much need there was to keep him in good
humour, for Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, had pro-

2 — 2

2O History of Devonshire.

claimed the Earl of Richmond in the city; and it was
during this visit to Exeter that Richard had his own
brother-in-law, Sir Thomas St. Leger, beheaded in the
castle-yard. It was there, too, that the incident happened
recorded by Shakespeare in the well-known lines :

* When last I was at Exeter,
The mayor in courtesy showed me the castle,
And called it Rougemont : at which name 1 started,
Because a bard of Ireland told me once
I should not live long after I saw Richmond.'

In common speech the two words would have been almost
identical in sound.

It was only to be expected that Perkin Warbeck
should make Exeter the first object of his ambition.
Landing at Whitsand Bay, near the Land's End, in
September, 1497, ten days later he appeared with his
motley host before the city walls. The citizens, as usual,
held with the King de facto ; and the Courtenays (Edward
Earl of Devon, and William his son) drove Warbeck off,
after he had made desperate attacks upon the city gates,
which he succeeded in setting on fire. Then Henry, on
his march into the West, made Exeter his headquarters.
Hither Warbeck was brought a prisoner ; and it was in
the Cathedral Close that the King had the captured
rebels brought before him 'bareheaded, in their shirts,
and halters about their necks,' and ' graciously pardoned
them, choosing rather to wash his hands in milk by for-
giving, than in blood by destroying them.'

The next stage in Exonian history is supplied by the
Western Rebellion, the most formidable popular opposition
to the Reformation that England saw. It was almost
wholly a rural movement, and had little support from the
towns. The uprisings of town populations are commonly
associated with the idea of progress, however subversively
it may be urged ; when the country rebels, its action is
commonly retrogressive. This movement was undoubtedly,

Exeter. 2 1

in one sense, economical. Twenty-four religious houses,
some of great wealth and extensive charities, had been
suppressed in Devon. The poorer dwellers in their
neighbourhoods felt the loss severely. Not only did alms
cease, but the new holders of the Church estates proved
harder landlords than the monks. The progress of
enclosure, and the substitution of pasturage for tillage,
increased this disadvantage. Little was required to fan
the vast amount of smouldering discontent thus created
into flame.

The occasion for the outbreak in Devon was the
abolition of the mass, and the substitution of the Prayer-
Book service ; and the rebellion commenced in the parish
of Sampford Courtenay, far away from any town on the
northern skirts of the great waste of Dartmoor. The new
service was used there on the gth of June, 1549; but on
the following day the parish priest was compelled to
resume his vestments and say mass as usual, by a body
of the inhabitants, headed by William Underbill, a tailor,
and Segar, a labourer. This popular element was evi-
dently directed from without. From Sampford Courtenay
the rising soon spread into the adjoining parishes. The
efforts made by the justices to suppress it were very
feeble and very vain. William Hellions, a Fleming
settled at Sampford, was killed : probably, being a
Fleming, he was also a Protestant. Presently Somerset
and Cornwall joined in the movement.

Crediton was then adopted as the place of rendezvous.
Hither flocked the disaffected from all parts of the West
of England ; and ere long a strong force assembled, led
by men of repute and family — Sir Thomas Pomeroy, of
Berry-Pomeroy ; Sir Humphry Arundel, of the great
Cornish family of that name ; Coffin, Winslade, and
others. Sir Peter and Sir Gawain Carew, marching on
Crediton, found the roads barricaded, and met with a
strong resistance. The rebels had garrisoned a row of

22 History of Devonshire.

barns with matchlock-men, and these were dislodged by
setting the barns on fire. Thenceforward the ' Barns of
Crediton ' became a rallying-cry. The Carews were
unable to make head against the storm. Marching upon
Exeter 10,000 strong, the rebels called the city to sur-
render. The summons was refused, and, assault being
unavailing, siege commenced.

Lord Russell, then Lord Lieutenant of the countyr
hastened to the aid of the Carews ; but his force was
small, and until he could gather strength he resorted to
negotiation. The rebels were willing to make peace, but
it must be upon their own terms — and these terms show
clearly enough that the rising by this time was no longer
a popular outburst, if it had ever really been so. The
proposals were not such as would come from a body of
country folk, however eager for their old faith. Dictated
in a professional sense so far as the religious articles
were concerned, in their economical relations they were
prompted by an aversion to new blood.

It was demanded that the Six Articles should be
observed, as in the reign of Henry VIII. ; that Catholic
worship should be restored in all its details ; that they
who would not worship the Sacrament hung over the
high altar should die like heretics ; that the Bible and all
books of Scripture in English should be called in, ' for
we are informed that otherwise the clergy shall not of
long time confound the heretics ;' that Dr. Moreman
and Dr. Crispin should be sent them, and have livings
given to preach the Catholic faith ; that Cardinal Pole
should be pardoned and promoted to the King's Council ;
that no gentleman should have more servants than one,
' except he may dispense one hundred mark land, and for
every hundred mark we think it reasonable that he may
have a man ;' that the half part of all abbey and chantry
lands in each county should be appropriated to establish
therein, in the place of two of the chief abbeys, ' a place

Exeter. 23

for devout persons, which shall pray for the King and the
Commonwealth. '

Such demands were of course inadmissible ; but Russell
continued in his headquarters at Honiton until he was
strengthened by the arrival of sundry German and Italian
mercenaries. The first skirmish with the insurgents was
at Feniton Bridge, whence he returned to Honiton. Then
he met and beat them at Woodbury, and followed them
up through the Clyst Valley, inflicting such loss upon
them on the 5th of August at St. Mary Clyst, though
they fought desperately, that the siege was raised. Most
of the rebels who escaped retreated to Sampford, and
there, in its cradle, the rebellion as an organized move-
ment was finally crushed. The leaders were sent to
London, and with the exception of Sir Thomas Pomeroy,
tried and executed. He saved his life, but lost his estates.
Of the common sort 4,000 were slain. For miles round
Exeter the country was so harried and spoiled that for
years the marks of desolation remained. Welch, the
stalwart vicar of St. Thomas by Exeter, who had been
very active in the siege, was hanged in full canonicals
on his own church tower ; and there his body remained
until the accession of Mary turned the rebel into a
martyr.

This siege of Exeter lasted from the 2nd of July to the
6th August. During the last ten days the citizens suffered
severely from famine, and were reduced to live on horse-
flesh and ' horse-bread.' Nor were they free from other
difficulties, for the Catholic party in the city outnumbered
the Protestant, and treachery was threatened. Fortu-
nately, whatever their faith, the Mayor and his brethren
were loyal. They were rewarded by the renewal of their
charter, and the grant of the valuable manor of Exe
Island.

In 1555 Exeter had some share in the effort made by
the Carews before mentioned, with Sir Thomas Dennis

24 History of Devonshire.

and others, to arouse popular feeling against the reception
of King Philip in England. But this hardly reached
beyond a demonstration ; and Peter escaped to the Con-
tinent in a vessel belonging to Walter Ralegh, Sir
Walter's father.

At the commencement of the war between Charles I.
and his Parliament Exeter was seized by the Earl of
Bedford, Lord Lieutenant of the county, and garrisoned by
him in the Roundhead interest. The Earl of Stamford,
defeated at Stratton in May, 1643, was the Governor. He
was at first besieged by Sir John Berkeley, and afterwards
by Prince Maurice, and surrendered in the September
following his defeat. There is little doubt that the bulk
of the inhabitants were Royalists, for the appointment of
Sir John Berkeley as Governor was received with great
joy. Exeter thenceforth was regarded as one of the most
secure Cavalier strongholds in the kingdom.

In May, 1644, having bid her husband farewell for the
last time at Abingdon, Henrietta Maria took up her
abode in Exeter; and on Sunday, the i6th of June
following, the Princess Henrietta Anne, afterwards
Duchess of Orleans, was born. The Earl of Essex was
then coming into the West, and the Queen asked him to
refrain from assaulting the city, and subsequently to give
her a safe-conduct to Bath. Essex would give a pass to
London, but in no other way would help her. Ill and
suffering as she was, she had therefore to escape. The
river was blockaded, and she fled by land, leaving her
child behind. Passing through Okehampton, Launceston,
and Truro, she reached Falmouth, set sail on the I4th July,
and on the I5th landed at Brest. Some wonderful stories
are told of the difficulties and privations of her escape ;
but there is excellent evidence that she was escorted by
Prince Maurice to Launceston, if not beyond, where she
was among friends, and that she was never in any real
danger.

Exeter. 25

The Exonian Princess, who had been left in charge of
Lady Moreton and Sir John Berkeley, was baptized in
the font yet remaining in the cathedral. Her portrait in
the Exeter Guildhall, by Sir Peter Lely, was presented to
the city, as a recognition of the kindness of the citizens,
by Charles II. in 1671. She had then been dead a year,
and there were grave suspicions that her death was caused
by poison. She was first seen by her father in July, 1644,
when he visited the city in company with Prince Charles,
arid was welcomed by the Corporation with the acceptable
gift of £500.

Exeter, which had several important outposts in the
neighbouring parishes, was blockaded by Fairfax in the
spring of 1646, and was surrendered to him in April of
that year. The Princess, who had been duly cared for in
the articles of surrender, was taken to Paris by Lady
Moreton.

The city saw the closing scenes of the fruitless rising
for the restoration of Charles II., under Penruddock and
Groves, in 1655. They proclaimed Charles II. King of
England at South Molton, but before they could gather
their forces to a head, were captured and conveyed to
Exeter, where they were afterwards tried. Penruddock
and Groves, both Wiltshire men, were beheaded in the
castle, others of their associates hung at Heavitree, and
the bulk banished and sold into slavery. The Restoration
was, however, hailed at Exeter even more heartily than at
the other boroughs in the West, whose loyalty was, for
the most part, somewhat effusive. The temper of the
•citizens, indeed, changed as time went on ; and Jeffries at
Exeter enacted some of the direst cruelties of his Bloody
Assize. But he left popular feeling only dormant, not
extinct.

' William the Deliverer ' made his entry into the city by
the West Gate on the gth November, 1688, four days
after his landing at Brixham. Lord Mordaunt and Dr.

26 History of Devonshire.

Burnet on the previous day had found the West Gate
closed, but without barricade or fastening, so that it was
speedily opened. The civic authorities were then on the
side of the Stuarts. The Bishop and the Dean fled, but
the Mayor contented himself with ordering the gate to be
closed, and with excusing himself for receiving William on
the score that he had taken an oath to his lawful King
James, by whom he had recently been knighted. The
inhabitants generally welcomed William gladly, and
though the day was very wet and rainy, he made his
entrance with considerable state. The Deanery had been
chosen as his residence ; and thence he crossed the yard
to the cathedral, where Te Deum was sung for his safe-
arrival in England. The Prince occupied the Bishop's
throne, and the cathedral was crowded. When Burnet
read the Declaration, setting forth the reasons of the
invasion, such of the cathedral clergy as were present left
the place, while the majority of the congregation responded
to Burnet's 'God save the Prince of Orange ' with a hearty
4 Amen.'

At Exeter William remained several days, holding his
Court at the Deanery, recruiting his army, and gradually
receiving the accession of men of influence in Devon and
the adjoining counties of Somerset and Dorset. It was at
the suggestion of Sir Edward Seymour that the ' gentle-
men of Devon ' formed a ' general association,' and
formally pledged themselves to the Prince's cause by
signing a Declaration drawn up by Burnet. By this time
the Mayor and Aldermen thought it wise to pay William
all respect : and the Dean not only found his way back,
but enrolled himself as one of William's followers. Before
the Prince left Exeter the conflict was practically over,
and the fate of James was sealed. The welcome of the
people of the ancient city, and the general, if somewhat
tardy, adhesion of the men of greatest weight in the West
of England, had won the battle before a blow was struck.

Exeter. 27

This visit of William of Orange is the last great link that
connects Exeter with the vital national history. Thence-
forward its record is that of a more local life.

The ecclesiastical history of Exeter is to a large extent
that of Devon likewise. We have dismissed as altogether
idle the idea that in Saxon times it was called Monktown
from the number of its religious edifices. Still, the out-
lying parish of St. Sidwells takes name from Sativola, or
Sidwella, a virgin martyr said to have been beheaded with
a scythe, and buried here in 740 ; and it was to Exeter
that Winfrith, the future apostle of Germany, came to be
taught some half century earlier. But the definite eccle-
siastical history of the city begins with the transference
thither by Leofric of the seat of the See of Devon and
Cornwall, and the setting up of his bishopstool in the
monastery of St. Mary and St. Peter.

Mr. Davidson holds there is good evidence to show that
this monastery was founded by ^Selstan, probably in the
year 926; and that it was at the great gemot held at
Exeter, April 16, 928, that ^ESelstan's laws were pro-
mulgated, and the Church consecrated. This minster is
believed to have occupied the site of the east part of the
present Lady Chapel of the cathedral. It was restored
under Eadgar in 965, and almost entirely rebuilt by Cnut
in 1019. To this already ancient Saxon foundation, then,
Leofric came in 1050. The occasion was one of singular
pomp, for the Bishop was personally installed in his new
chair by Eadweard the Confessor himself and Eadgytha,
his Queen, the one taking him by the right hand and the
other by the left, praying blessings upon all that should
increase the see, and denouncing ' a fearful and execrable
curse ' upon all who should diminish or take aught there-
from!

There was need of this execration if it could have been
made effective, especially if its retrospective action could

28 History of Devonshire.

have been assured. ^ESelstan is said to have endowed the
monastery with twenty-six manors, and with one-third of
the relics which he collected. Other gifts had undoubtedly
been made. Yet when Leofric took to the minster,
all its lands in possession consisted of two hides at Ide,
near Exeter, with seven head of cattle ! When he died
in 1073 he left it again wealthy. He had recovered lands
at Culmstock, Branscombe, Salcombe, St. Mary Church,
Staverton, Sparkwell, Morchard, Sidwell, Huish, Brixton,
Topsham (taken away again by Harold), Stoke Canon,
Sidbury, Newton St. Cyres, Norton, and Traysbeare ;
and he added to the estates of the see of his own gift
lands at Bampton, Aston, Chimney, Dawlish, Holcombe,
and Southwood. In a very real and practical sense,
therefore, and not by title merely, Leofric was the founder
of the See of Exeter. Moreover, he entirely reformed the
foundation upon which his bishopric had been grafted.
Originally there were three religious houses within the
Close — a nunnery, a monastery, presumably founded by
^ESelred about 868, and the minster of St. Mary and St.
Peter. The ravages of the Danes made the monks and
nuns fly in terror, the buildings being destroyed and the
charters burnt, and but for the religious zeal of Cnut there
would in all probability have been an end of ^Selstan's
minster altogether. What Leofric did was to remove
the monks and nuns, adding both the nunnery and
^ESelred's monastery to the minster, and establishing in
the latter canons under the Lotharingian rule.

No part of the present cathedral saw the stately
enthronement of Leofric, though it has been suggested
that the little chapel of the Holy Ghost, next the Chapter
House, may be a portion of the Saxon fane. The Norman
cathedral was begun by William Warelwast, nephew of
the Conqueror, and Bishop of Exeter (1107-1136). By
him were built the great transeptal towers, with the choir
and its apse, and the eastern bay of the nave ; but this

Exeter. 29

work was not completed until the episcopate of Henry
Marshall (1194-1206), who added the Lady Chapel. The
north and south towers were thus transeptal from the
first, and not, as formerly thought, the western towers of
the Norman building adapted as transepts some century
and a half after they were erected.

Less than a century elapsed from the completion of the
Norman cathedral ere it began to be replaced by the
present structure, one of the finest examples of sym-
metrical Decorated Gothic in existence. Bishop Quivil
(1280-1291) was the founder of the new structure, and the
beginner, in the Lady Chapel and transepts, of the work
of transformation, which was continued in the choir by
Bishop Bitton (1292-1307), and not completed — though
QuiviPs plans were evidently followed — until Bishop
Grandisson (1327-1369) carried out the nave. The noble
west front, with its 'statues of prophets and apostles,
martyrs, saints, and kings ' — a screen of great interest and
of singular beauty, even in decay — originated with Bishop
Brantyngham (1370-1394). The Chapter House was
built by Bishop Bruere (1224-1244), but took its present
form in the episcopates of Bishops Lacy, Neville, and
Bothe (1420-1478). The two chief accessory features of
the interior — the choir screen, which now bears the
organ, originally la pulpytte, and the magnificent episcopal
throne, with its towering canopy of carved oak — are the
work of Bishop Stapledon (1308-1327), who also erected
the elaborate sedilia. The misereres are the earliest
extant in this country, and are assigned to Bishop Bruere.
Such are the chief master builders of this noble fane;
but for four centuries from the date of the accession of
Warelwast there was hardly a bishop to whom the
cathedral was not indebted for some addition in structure
or detail. We see it now, however, almost fresh, so far
as the interior is concerned, from the restoration of Sir
Gilbert Scott, which gave rise to an amount of controversy

30 History of Devonshire.

on points of technicality and taste unusual even in such
relations. But there has never been any difference of
opinion respecting the beauty of the modern carved work
which he designed, and which Messrs, Farmer and
Brindley executed.

Several of the Bishops are buried in the cathedral,
Leofric first of the number. Among the holders of the
see who won more than local repute and fame were
Leofric, who was Lord Chancellor; Walter Stapledon,
Lord High Treasurer, founder of Stapledon's Inn at Ox-
ford, now Exeter College ; Bishop Brantyngham, who
held the same office ; Bishop Stafford, Lord Privy Seal,
who completed the foundation of Exeter College ; Bishop
Neville, Lord Chancellor ; Bishops Fox and Oldham,
founders of Corpus Christi College; Bishop Coverdale,
translator of the Bible ; Bishop Hall, afterwards of
Norwich; and Bishop Trelawny, one of the seven Bishops
sent to the Tower by James II., and the hero of the
famous burden (modernized) :

* And shall they scorn Tre, Pol, and Pen,

And shall Trelawny die?
There's twenty thousand Cornishmen
Will know the reason why.'

Among the religious houses of Exeter and its immediate
vicinity which fell at the Dissolution were the Benedictine
priory of St. Nicholas, originally with the church of St.
Olave an appendage of Battle Abbey, and founded by the
Conqueror ; the Cluniac priory of St. James ; Franciscan
and Dominican convents ; and the Benedictine priories of
Cowick and Polsloe (nuns). The priory of St. Nicholas
became independent under Rufus, and, like the houses of
the Carmelites at Plymouth, and the Benedictines at Buck-
fast, portions of the site have been recently purchased by
the Roman Catholics, and in part restored to the olden uses.

Most notable among the Exeter parishes is that of St.
Petrock, which lies in the very heart of the ancient city,

Exeter. 3 1

and is less than two acres and three quarters in extent.
It has given Exeter a long array of distinguished citizens ;
indeed, as Mr. R. Dymond says, 'The fortunes of more
than one distinguished English family were founded on
shrewd bargains driven by some mercantile ancestor
within that small area.' The dedication to a British saint
appears to define the parish as part of that division of
Exeter in which for a time the Briton dwelt side by side
with the Saxon. There is little doubt, moreover, that it
was one of the twenty-nine city churches to which the
Conqueror directed the payment by the city provost of a
silver penny yearly out of the city taxes. Its most notable
antiquarian feature is the fact that it • has an all but
complete series of churchwarden accounts from the year
1425, presumed to be unrivalled for antiquity and con-
tinuity.

Exeter, indeed, is rich in the matter of local records.
At the fine old Guildhall in the High Street, which dates
from 1466, though its front is late Elizabethan (1593), are
the municipal archives, extending back to the thirteenth
century, arranged and calendared by Mr. Stuart Moore,
who did the same for the muniments of the Dean and
Chapter. Among the chief treasures of the latter the
chiefest is the volume known as the * Exon Domesday ;'
but there are still several relics of the library given by
Leofric to his minster, though his Missal and several
other works have found their way to the Bodleian. The
most important volume of Anglo-Saxon date remaining at
Exeter is the unique collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry
known as the ' Codex Exoniensis ;' and the miscellaneous
documents include some authentic and important Anglo-
Saxon charters.

By the death of Henry VIII. Devonshire had become
largely Puritan, though the majority of the inhabitants
were probably still Catholic. One martyr was burnt under
Henry, Thomas Benet, who suffered at Exeter. Only

History of Devonshire.

one perished under Mary, a poor woman of Launceston,
called Agnes Prest. But Cardmaker, alias Taylor, Chan-
cellor of Wells, burnt at Smithfield in 1555, was an
Exonian. The absence of religious activity in this reign
seems to prove that the Protestantism of Devon was not
very pronounced. The fact that under Elizabeth the
Visitation Commissioners left so much untouched in the
churches, and that so many magnificent rood screens
remained down to the day of churchwardenism, and even
yet continue, clearly points also to the existence in the
county of a Catholic element of some strength and im-
portance. Under Elizabeth Puritanism took deep root
in the West ; and the establishment of * Prophesyings of
the Clergy ' paved the way for the formal introduction of
Presbyterianism. The seed then sown sprang into active
life in the ensuing reigns, and was fostered with vigorous
growth by the proceedings of the Court of High Com-
mission. The records of that tribunal contain the names
of Devonshire men and women of all ranks of society —
members of the oldest and most respected families side
by side with those of poor husbandmen and handicraft
folk, recorded only in these dismal annals of the time.
The most remarkable point is the fact that they are
almost wholly from the rural districts and the smaller
towns. Was it the recognition of the growing strength
of popular feeling that caused the larger communities to
be passed by ? Assuredly it was not because they were
wanting in Puritanism, for they were its very heart and
life. Thus when Thomas Ford, born at Brixton, nigh
Plymouth, preached against the altar set up by Dr.
Fewens at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was expelled
the University, the Corporation of Plymouth chose him
as their lecturer. It took a letter under the royal sign-
manual and one from Laud to make them change their
minds. That they had purely submitted to circumstances
was abundantly evident not many years later, when Ply-

Exeter. 33

mouth proved the one unconquerable centre of Western
Puritanism.

In a county which saw so much sharp ' controversy '
during the struggle between Charles and the Parliament,
it was inevitable that religious institutions should be
largely affected. Nowhere were the changes so great as in
Exeter, because in no place was the Church of England so
strongly or so influentially represented. The cathedral was
denuded of its clergy and divided into ' East and West
Peters' by a * Babylonish wall,' while sundry of the parish
churches were dismantled and sold, being recovered and
put to their former uses, however, after the Restoration.

Walker (himself an Exonian), in his ' Sufferings of the
Clergy,' estimates the total number of deprivations under
the Commonwealth in Devon at a third of the whole
body of clergy. The county then contained 394 parish
churches. He gives the names himself of just 200 as
deprived ; but when the doubtfuls are weeded out, errors
corrected, and allowance made for pluralities, 128 remain,
which agrees very closely with Walker's own calculation.
Most of the ejections were from rural parishes ; but while
Episcopacy was represented in almost all the large towns,
Presbyterianism had gained so great a hold in many
localities that the abolition of Episcopacy made no
change in them ; and subsequent events proved that
there must have been left in the livings of the county a
considerable body of clergy who were either Episcopalian
at heart, or who knew how to trim their course to suit
the favour of the party in power.

When the Act of Uniformity was passed, in 1662,
132 Presbyterian and Independent ministers were ejected.
The Episcopalians sequestrated and the Puritans ejected
were thus about equal in number ; but the areas of de-
privation were by no means identical. In 44 towns
and parishes, including nearly all the chief centres of
population, both parties suffered in turn. In about 70,

3

34 History of Devonshire.

Episcopalians only were turned out ; in about 50, only
Presbyterians and Independents ; but at one time or
another, more than half the parishes in the county were
affected. Of the sequestrated Episcopalians, some 50
regained their livings. Of those who had replaced them,
still more conformed and retained under the Bishop
what they had received under the Presbytery. Most of
the ejected Puritans endeavoured to keep their people
together ; and about one-half availed themselves of the
provisions of the short-lived Declaration of Indulgence
of 1672. When William of Orange landed at Torbay,
among the heartiest in their welcome were those of the
ejected who remained, and their faithful followers. They
were in the main of the middle ranks of society, but
included many members of the leading families.

It is rather a remarkable fact that the old Presbyterian
organization of the county still survives. On the i8th
October, 1655, there was founded the Exeter Assembly,
an association of Presbyterian ministers (to which Inde-
pendents were afterwards admitted), intended to deal
with matters of doctrine and discipline. The original
articles, signed by 131 ministers, and the original minutes,
are still preserved ; and the Assembly, which in process
of time became first Arian and then Unitarian, still holds
an annual meeting for worship and business. The last
survivor in Devon of the ejected of 1662 was John Knight
of Littlehempston, who died in 1715. The minutes of the
Assembly show that there were then in existence 59
congregations which had been founded by his brethren
and himself, with a total attendance of 21,750. Of these,
30 continue to this day unbroken and with many off-
shoots. In more than half the parishes or places for
which licenses were granted in 1672, the elder Non-
conformity still remains.

There is the fullest evidence that for more than 400

Exeter. 35

years Exeter was the seat first of a Saxon and then of
a Norman mint. The earliest coin extant is a silver
penny of Alfred, who began his reign in 872 ; and the
latest is a penny of Edward I., 1272-1307. During
this period at least 254 varieties are known to have
been struck, in the reigns of Alfred, Efielstan, Ead-
mund, Eadred, Eadwig, Eadgar, Eadweard the Martyr,
^ESelred II., Cnut, Harold I., Harthacnut, Eadweard the
Confessor, Harold II., William I., William II., Henry I.,
Stephen, Henry II., John, Henry III., Edward I. The
coins are all pennies ; and the most numerous are those
of ^ESelred, Cnut, and the Confessor, which comprise
more than five-sixths of those known to have been struck
before the Conquest. More than 100 types and varieties
exist of ^Selred alone; and the largest collection is
that in the Royal Cabinet at Stockholm, relics of the
ancient Danegeld which ^Selred was the first to impose.

After the lapse of some three and a half centuries,
the Exeter mint was again worked by Charles I. during
his struggle with the Parliament. Most of his coins
are dated 1644 ; but many of the 37 varieties known
to exist were struck in the following year. They were
all of silver, and include ' half-pounds,' crowns, half-
crowns, shillings, sixpences, groats, threepennies, and
pennies.

William III. was the last to employ the Exeter mint.
His coins were half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences ;
dated 1696 and 1697.

Of the seventeenth-century tradesmen's tokens, Exeter
issued a far larger proportion — just 90 — of the 360 known
to have been struck in Devon than any other town ; and
there could hardly be a better index to its relative import-
ance. Norwich alone, in all the provinces, had so many
issuers. Plymouth struck barely half the number.

The trade of Exeter forms a feature in its history
almost comparable in importance with its ecclesiastical

3—2

j

J

36 History of Devonshire.

record. The commerce of the ancient city in Saxon times
led to the settlement therein of so large a number of
foreigners, that they were compelled by the inhabitants
to take part in the resistance offered to William. Woollen
manufacture became the staple industry, and so continued
until the decay of the cloth trade of Devon, in the latter
half of the eighteenth century. In 1458 the Tuckers and
the Cordwainers had a fierce dispute anent precedency in
the civic processions. The Cordwainers and Curriers had
been incorporated in 1387 ; and the Tuckers must have
had something like the same antiquity, for the decision
was that they were of equal dignity, and that they were
to walk abreast, one of each trade. The Weavers and
Fullers, however, into whose hands the chief business of
the city eventually fell, were not incorporated until 1490 ;
and it was only in 1540 that the Exeter folk successfully
established their right against the inhabitants of Crediton
to maintain the weekly woollen market which they had
founded ten years earlier. To such dimensions did the
woollen trade of Exeter grow that goods to the value of
half a million were annually exported to foreign marts —
to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Holland. More-
over, the Exeter merchants were travelled men, speaking
many languages fluently; and Sir John Bowring, the
greatest linguist of the West of England, and one of the
most distinguished of Exonians, records his early in-
debtedness to their instructions. Sir John's father was
himself a woollen manufacturer; and though Sir John
died so recently as 1872, he remembered well when a
' large proportion of the working classes of Exeter wore
a bright green apron of serge, fastened with a girdle of
the richest scarlet. These were the tuckers of the
privileged guild of fullers, weavers, and shearmen,' whose
hall still stands on Fore Street Hill, now the meeting-place
of the oldest lodge of Masonry in the county. This great
and flourishing fraternity Sir John lived to see ' reduced

Exeter. 37

to a few score of ancient people . . still the recipients of
the bounties, and many of them the occupants of the
almshouses built or endowed by those who had prospered
in the woollen trade.' Decay seems to have arisen from
various causes. For one thing, masters and men were
thoroughly bound up in the trammels of a restrictive
policy, which prevented the adaptation of the trade to the
changed conditions of the markets. The hour of trial
came, but not the men to lead. The introduction of
machinery, discountenanced in every way by the members
of the old guilds, but fostered elsewhere, also played its
part. But even yet the manufacture flourishes in a few
Devonshire towns, which had the advantage of enterprise
and skill; and the Devon serges retain in Eastern countries
the reputation they have enjoyed for centuries, and win
their way to wider appreciation at home.

The external trade of the city was so considerable seven
centuries since that Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of
Devon, a lady of great force of character, having
quarrelled with the citizens, as the readiest means of
injuring them threw what has since been called Countess
Weir across the Exe. The citizens appealed to the law,
which was clearly on their side ; and at length an opening
was made in the weir through which ships could pass.
A quarrel with an Earl of Devon a century later led in
process of time to the construction of the finest com-
mercial undertaking of which England in its day could
boast. Izacke gives a gossiping narrative of what he
alleges to be the cause of the whole affair. While Exeter
market, as a rule, was noted for its supply of fish, one un-
lucky day there happened to be but three ' pots ' on sale,
when the caterers of the Earl and of the Bishop both
came to buy. Each wanted the whole; neither would
give way. So Mayor Beynion was appealed to, and
settled the matter by giving one pot to each of the
disputants, and keeping the third for the general public.

J

38 History of Devonshire.

' Whereupon the Earl, in his high displeasure, maliciously
destroyed the haven.' Of a truth, ' a mighty matter about
a pott of ffish.' This was in 1311. In 1316, Hugh
Courtenay neither forgetting nor forgiving, matters
became even worse. ' His displeasure grew into anger,
and from thence to an extreme hatred and revenge, and
he devised all possible means to destroy the city !' Be
all this as it may — and even important communities like
Exeter had often difficulty in holding their own against
such powerful neighbours as the Courtenays — the damage
done to the Exe led in process of time to the formation
of the Exeter Canal, by which vessels reach the city quays
from the sea — one of the earliest works of the kind in the
kingdom. It was opened in 1566, one Trew being the
engineer.

The enterprise of the citizens had been developed by a
great mercantile brotherhood. The Guild of Merchant
Adventurers of the City of Exeter originated in troublous
times. In July, 1549, while Lord Russell lay at Honiton,
unable to advance against the Western rebels for want of
men and means, three men of the old city — John Bodlie,
Thomas Prestwood, and John Periam — raised the funds
which enabled him to resume his march, and crush the
rising. This, and the loyalty of which it was but an
illustration, led, ten years later, to the charter, by
Elizabeth, of the Merchant Adventurers, who commenced
operations in August, 1560. It was high time that some-
thing should be done to encourage commerce, even if
after the fashion of these days by way of monopoly. In
1557 it was reported to the Queen that no man in the
city or county of Exeter had any ship of his own, neither
means to take up vessels. Too much of their money had
been disbursed ' to the Quene's matie by way of lone.' One
of the first important acts of the guild was to grapple with
this point ; and we find the brethren, in 1566, taking up
certain vessels on freight on behalf of the Corporation,

Exeter.

39

j

j

and thus establishing a foreign carrying-trade with ships
that are noted as belonging to the city, as well as to other
ports in the county. The ventures were for Spain and
Portugal, and the goods sought wines and raisins.
Subsequently this special branch of trade was conducted
by a Spanish Guild. As years rolled on the ideas of the
Merchant Adventurers enlarged, and their business rami-
fications extended to the New World. They would have
nothing to do with Ralegh's attempts in Virginia ; but
they adventured with Adrian Gilbert and John Davis in
their voyages for the ' discovery of China,' the special
object being to open up a trade in woollens. They
contributed also to the last expedition of Sir Humphry
Gilbert, though they thought the ' tyme of the yeare to
be far spente.' They did not respond to the invitation
to join with Drake and Norris, on behalf of Don Antonio.
They were traders, and apparently kept strictly within
commercial limits, so far as the fashion of the times
allowed. Nothing is known of the circumstances under
which this once important corporation came to an end.
It is believed to have flourished most under the first
James, and to have collapsed during the troublous times
of the Civil Wars. Practically nothing whatever was
known of its internal affairs until its early minutes were
discovered among the archives of the Weavers' Guild, and
made the text a few years since of an admirable narrative
by Mr. William Cotton.

Notwithstanding all efforts at rivalship, Exeter has
maintained its position as the chief town in Devon
worthily. Its manufactures and special industries have
one by one died out. In general commerce it has been
long distanced by communities more favourably placed
with regard to the sea ; but it still enjoys the advantages
conferred by the neighbourhood of more notable families
than are to be found so thickly planted in any other part
of Devon. It remains the capital of the shire. The court-

40 History of Devonshire.

house, which has replaced its ancient castle, continues the
seat of county government. Its citizens have never been
found wanting in public spirit. Witness to this latter
point a host of institutions and charities, and the
Museum, Free Library, and Art Gallery, the finest build-
ing devoted to the promotion of science, literature, and
art, west of Bristol. An historic past has been worthily
succeeded by an active present.

Exeter has a marvellous muster-roll of worthies.
Archbishop Langton, the framer of Magna Charta, is
reputedly of Exonian birth. Archbishop Baldwin, who
died at Tyre in 1191, while engaged on a crusade, was
certainly a native of the city ; and so was his contemporary
Josephus Iscanus, 'the Swan of Isca,' the most distin-
guished of our mediaeval Latinists. Then we have Cardinal
Robert Pullein, who came from Exeter to Oxford in the
reign of Henry L, the reviver of learning in that university.
John Hoker, alias Vowell, the first historian of the
county, was born at Exeter about 1524, and died in 1601 ;
and his far more famous nephew, Richard Hooker the
* judicious,' saw the light at Heavitree in 1553, and died
in 1600. It is worthy of note that while Exeter thus pro-
duced the chief defender of the Established Church, it gave
Puritanism also one of its most prominent leaders in John
Reynolds — born at Pinhoe 1549, died 1607 — the chief
representative of Puritanism at the Hampton Court
Conference, and one of the translators of the Authorized
Version of the Bible. John Reynolds was originally a
Catholic, his brother William a Protestant. Each sought
to convert the other, and succeeded ! Contemporary with
these were the Bodleys — Thomas, Jonas, and Laurence;
the first and most famous being the founder of the
Bodleian Library.

The farmhouse of Dunscombe, near Crediton, which
still shows traces of its former importance, is the ancient

Exeter. 4 1

seat of this family. Sir Thomas Bodley was born at
Exeter in 1544, and left England at the early age of
twelve writh his father, John Bodley, who was a staunch
Protestant, and lived an exile at Geneva until the accession
of Elizabeth. His studies, begun in the university of
Geneva, were then continued at Oxford. His chief public
work was done in connection with the Court, the Queen
employing him in many embassies and negotiations of the
first importance. His public career lasted from 1583, when
he was made gentleman usher to the Queen, until 1597,
when he retired from pursuits found both toilsome and
vexatious, and entered upon the great work which will
make his name ever memorable — the refounding of the
library which had originated with the * good Duke '
Humphry of Gloucester. He died in 1612.

Lord Chief Baron Peryam (1534-1604) was another
worthy of Elizabethan Exeter, and so in part was the
famous Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619), the most dis-
tinguished English portrait and miniature painter of his
day. Son of a leading citizen named Robert Hilliard, he
was brought up to the trade of a goldsmith and jeweller,
and acquired such fame by his portraits of royalty and
members of distinguished families, that Donne said of him :

'A hand or eye

By Hilliard drawn, is worth a history
By a worse painter made.'

Hilliard's only recorded predecessor in Devonian art was
John Shute, of Cullompton, who also worked in miniature,
and who died in 1563. Contemporary with the later
years of Hilliard was the first sculptor of note produced
by the county, Nicholas Stone (1586-1647), and almost an
Exonian, seeing that he was born at Woodbury.

The seventeenth century yields such names as Sir
William Morice (1602-1676), Secretary of State to Charles
II. ; James Gandy (1619-1689), an admirable portrait-
painter and colourist; Sir Bartholomew Shower, lawyer

42 History of Devonshire.

and reporter, and his brother John, an eminent Dissent-
ing divine ; Tom D'Urfey (1628-1723), wit and song-
writer, the descendant of one of the colony of Huguenot
families settled at Exeter, to whom the church of St.
Olave was assigned as a place of worship ; the Princess
Henrietta (1644-1670) ; Simon Ockley (1678-1720), orient-
alist and historian ; and Lord Chancellor King, Baron
Oakham, the son of a grocer, and nephew of Locke
(1669-1743).

Then of the eighteenth century we have Thomas Hud-
son (1701-1779), the fashionable portrait-painter of his day,
and ' master' of Reynolds ; Francis Hayman (1708-1776),
the chief historical painter of his time, and the first
Librarian of the Royal Academy; William Jackson (1730-
1803), the composer ; Sir Vicary Gibbs (1752-1820), Chief
/ Justice of the Common Pleas and Chief Baron of the
Exchequer ; Lord Gifford (1779-1826), Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas and Master of the Rolls ; John Herman
Merivale (1779-1844), the accomplished author and
reviewer; Sir W. Follett, born at Topsham (1798-1845),
/ Attorney-General ; and Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), the
most many-sided of literary Exonians, familiar with every
European language, and the leading Oriental tongues ; a
political economist of the school of Bentham, his mentor
and friend ; a traveller and a diplomatist ; the investiga-
tor of the commercial relations of England with the
Continent ; the negotiator of several important treaties ;
and sometime Governor of Hong Kong.

The heaviest loss Exeter has had of late is that of
Edward Bowring Stephens, A.R.A. (1815-1882), the most
distinguished sculptor the West of England has produced,
of whose skill Exeter boasts the possession of some of the
finest examples.

Many of the local notables were connected with the
woollen trade, and the little erewhile suburban parish of
St. Leonards can claim at least five peerages, with a score

Exeter. 43

of baronetages and knightages, for the descendants of its
quondam inhabitants. The great mercantile house of
Baring and its peerages date back to Matthew Baring, son
of a Lutheran pastor at Bremen, who came to Exeter
about 1717, and, after learning the serge manufacture with
Edmund Cock, married the daughter of a rich grocer
named Vowler, and founded a flourishing factory. His
son John was member for Exeter (1776-1803). Another
son, Francis, became a baronet in 1793. His daughter
Elizabeth married John Dunning, Lord Ashburton ; and
the title was revived in 1835 — after the death in 1823;
without issue, of Richard Barre, the second lord — in
Alexander, Sir Francis's second son, while his grandson
Francis was created Baron Northbrook in 1866. The
founder of the family of Duntze, since represented in the
baronetage, was also a native of Bremen, who settled in
Exeter, and engaged in the woollen trade. Sir John Ken-
naway, again, is descended from a family largely engaged
in the same manufacture. John Cranch, the zoologist,
who perished in the Congo expedition, was the son of a
working fuller of the city.

Alike in their historical and personal associations,
the suburban and surrounding parishes of Exeter have
exceptional interest and importance. Heavitree, which
forms part of the parliamentary area of Exeter, but not
of the * city,' under the title of Wonford was the head of
the hundred in which Exeter is situated, and which still
retains its ancient name. As Wenford it appears in
' Domesday,' part of the Royal demesnes which had been
held by Eadgytha ; and Heavitree, or Hevetrove (' hive-
tree'), was then an insignificant manor, belonging to Ralph
de Pomeroy. How the lesser name supplanted the greater
is not very apparent. There is an absurd legend that
names Heavitree from ' heavy-tree,' i.e. the gallows,
because it was the common place of execution. The

44 History of Devonshire.

Cluniac Priory of St. James, here founded in 1146 as a
cell to St. Martin in the Fields, near Paris, passed to
King's College, Cambridge. Polsloe Priory for Bene-
dictine nuns, founded by William Lord Briwere, temp.
Richard I., continued until 1538, when its revenues were
worth £164 8s. nd.

The parish of St. Thomas, lying west of the Exe, does
not form part either of the ancient city of Exeter or its
county, though included within its modern parliamentary
limits. It has been a place of some little note, though
overshadowed by its great neighbour. At Cowick was a
cell of Benedictine monks, from the Abbey of Bee
Harlewin, to which the estate had been given by
William Fitz-Baldwin. Here Hugh Lord Courtenay was
buried in 1340. Seized with the rest of the possessions
of the alien priories by Henry V., it was eventually
restored, and was granted, about 1462, to the Abbey of
Tavistock. Another religious foundation here was the
cell of St. Mary de Marisco, an appendage of Plympton
Priory. This was at Marsh Barton. Floyer Hayes, for
many centuries the seat of the Floyers, was held under
the Earl of Devon, by the service of waiting upon the
lord paramount whenever he should come into Exe Island,
the tenant being seemingly apparelled with a napkin
about his neck or on his shoulders, and having a pitcher
of wine and a silver cup in his hand, whereof to offer his
lord to drink.

Stoke Canon is claimed as having been given to his
minster in Exeter by ^ESelstan, and subsequently by Cnut
to his thegn Hunuwine, from whom presumably it passed
to the minster. Cnut's grant at least is certain, and he
was traditionally regarded as the donor. In 'Domesday'
it appears simply as Stoche. Brampford Speke is also
entitled to regard, from its connection with the ancient
family of Speke, now settled in Somerset, but once

Exeter. 45

holding a distinguished position in Devon. Of this
family was descended Captain Speke, the associate of
Captain Grant in the discovery of the source of the Nile,
in 1863, and himself a Devonshire man, born at Orleigh
Court, near Bideford. One of his ancestors is said to
have been hung by Jeffries, after that brutal judge had
breakfasted with him at his house at White Lackington.
There is a tradition that certain paths in Devon were
appropriated to the sole use of the Spekes, and hence
called ' Speke-paths.' Thorverton manor was given to
the Abbey of Marmoustier in Tours, by Henry II., but
was bought of the monks by Sir John Wiger, and given
by him in 1276 to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter,
in support of three chantry priests celebrating specially
for the souls of Henry de Bracton (from whose estate a
part of the purchase-money had come) and of Sir John
Wiger and his benefactors.

Pynes, in Upton Pyne, the present seat of the North-
cote family (who were at Northcote in East Downe as
early as the year 1103), came to them by the marriage of
Sir Henry Northcote, the fifth baronet, with the heiress
of Stafford. Hence the additional name of Stafford, so
familiar in the title of the Earl of Iddesleigh when he was
Sir Stafford Northcote. Prior to acquiring Pynes, the
Northcotes were at Hayne, in the parish of Newton St.
Cyres. Here lived Sir John Northcote, the first baronet
of the family, a member of the Long Parliament, who left
behind him a volume of notes on the proceedings of that
body, and served as colonel for the Parliament in the
earlier part of the Civil War. The Northcotes were allied
with some of the most distinguished houses of the West,
and with the Plantagenets. By marrying heiresses they
extended their own importance and possessions ; and
among the families they thus represent are Helion, Meoles,
Mamhede, Drew, Haswell, and Stafford.

46 History of Devonshire.

The Bampfyldes have been settled at Poltimore since
the reign of Edward I., and entered the ranks of the
baronetage in 1641. Sir John Bampfylde became for a
time Governor on behalf of the Parliament of the town of
Plymouth, and his son, Sir Copleston Bampfylde, took a
leading part in the restoration of Charles II. The family
were raised to the peerage as Barons Poltimore in 1831.
Among the houses with which the Bampfyldes are allied,
or whom they represent, are Pederton, St. Maure,
Copleston, Codrington, and Gorges.

Settled at Akland, in the parish of Landkey, for sixteen
descents before the Visitation of 1620. the ancient family
of Acland for nearly three centuries have made their home
in the vicinity of Exeter. Sir John Acland was the
builder of the house at Columbjohn, which gave title to
the baronetcy at its creation in 1644, and which was
garrisoned by its owner for the King. At one time it
contained the only Royalist garrison in the county ; but
in March, 1646, it was the headquarters of Sir Thomas
Fairfax. This mansion has been destroyed, and the
present seat of the Aclands is at Killerton, in the same
parish of Broad Clyst. Originally built in the year 1788,
Killerton was greatly enlarged and improved by its late
owner, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, to whom the dis-
tinguished honour was paid of the erection of a statue on
Northernhay, Exeter, in his lifetime, ' as a tribute for
private worth and public integrity, and in testimony of
admiration of a generous heart and open hand, which
have been ever ready to protect the weak, to relieve the
needy, and to succour the oppressed of whatever party,
race, or creed.' The Aclands take their second name of
Dyke as representatives of the old Somersetshire family
of that name.

CHAPTER III.

EXMOUTH AND THE EXE ESTUARY.

EXMOUTH is one of the comparatively few places in Devon
that finds mention before the Conquest, though the earlier
references to Exanmutha in all likelihood really refer to
the river, or estuary, and not to any town. Thus it was
clearly at the ' mouth of the Exe ' that the Danes landed
in 1001, when they defeated the men of Somerset and
Devon at Pinhoe. Evidence exists, however, that Ex-
mouth was a local habitation, as well as a name, some
forty years later. There is extant a grant of half a mansa
of land by Eadweard the Confessor to a thane named
Ordgar in 1042 ; and this half-mansa Mr. J. B. David-
son has shown is practically identical with the present
parish of Littleham, in which the older part of modern
Exmouth stands. Among the boundaries mentioned in
the charter is Lydewic nsesse, and this Lydewic seems
equivalent to ' Shipwick,' the shipping or sailors' village.
Another boundary-mark pointing to ancient settlement,
is the 'plegin stowe' or ' playing-place.' Ordgar gave
Littleham to the Abbey of Horton, which was annexed
in 1 122 to Sherborne, and to Sherborne the manor con-
tinued to belong until the Dissolution. One of the rights
of the Abbey was the ferry over the Exe, from Prattshide
— which apparently supplanted Lydewic as the name for
ancient Exmouth — to Starcross, so named because the

48 History of Devonshire.

landing was at a flight of stone stairs, adjoining a cross
set up by the abbot. This ferry, it has been thought
highly probable, was rented by the Drakes of Pratts-
hide, who were certainly the ancestors of the Drakes of
Ash, and possibly of those of Tavistock, thence of Buck-
land and Nutwell.

The name Exmouth long continued to be applied to
the port rather than the infant town. The word is so
used under King John ; and in 1347 ^ must have been
Exeter under the title of Exmue, and not any Exmouth
ville, that furnished ten ships and 193 men for the expe-
dition against Calais. Exmouth was, indeed, only a
' Fisschar Tounlet ' when Leland saw it about 1540 ;
and therefore it must again be the port that is intended
when it is recorded that the Earl of March, afterwards
Duke of York and Edward IV., sailed thence in 1459 for
Calais, after the first battle of St. Albans. But Exmouth
itself was of sufficient note, a few years later, to give
Devon one of its stoutest Elizabethan seamen, Richard
Whitbourne, who was present when Sir Humphry
Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland in 1583 ; who
served, in 1588, in a ship of his own as a volunteer against
the Armada ; and who was the chief agent in the coloni-
zation of 'Avalon in the New-found-land,' under James I.
In the narrative of his voyages he describes amusingly
what he had taken for a ' Maremaid,' but wisely adds,
1 Whether it were a Maremaid or no, I know not ; I leaue
for others to judge/

Exmouth was made a Royal garrison in the wars of
the Commonwealth. A fort was erected on the sand-bar
at the entrance of the river, and held out for forty-six
days under Colonel Arundell before he surrendered,
March 16, 1646, to Sir Hardress Waller. And here
comes in a curious point of topography.

The ancient harbour not only had a bar, but a rock in
the channel, called the ' Chickstone,' so much in the way,

Exmouth and the Exe Estuary. 49

according to Westcote, that it grew to be proverbial that,
' if we desire to be rid of anything we forthwith wish it to
be on Chickstone.' The bar, or Warren, in the seven-
teenth century was connected, not with the Dawlish side
of the river as now, but with the Exmouth shore, and here
stood the fort. The entrance into the river from the sea
was by the western bank and not the eastern ; and it
was possible to cross from Exmouth to the Warren by
stepping-stones as late as 1730. There is a story told,
too, of a captain who, by trusting to an old chart, ran
his vessel high and dry one night on the track of the
ancient channel.

Littleham, after the Dissolution, came to Sir Thomas
Dinnis; and, by descent, eventually to the Rolles, its
present lords.

The northern portion of Exmouth lies in the parish of
Withycombe Ralegh. This passed to the Raleghs from
the Clavells, and hence became one of several parishes
that took and have retained the name of Ralegh as a
distinctive title. It seems an almost hopeless task to
attempt to connect the different branches of this wide-
spread and distinguished race with the original stock of
the Raleghs of Ralegh in Pilton, or to reconcile the dis-
cordant pedigrees. Yet there is no doubt the connection
exists. Wymond Ralegh, grandfather of the famous Sir
Walter Ralegh, whose seat was at Fardell, near Ply-
mouth, held estate in Withycombe Ralegh ; and this may
have been one of the causes that induced his son Walter
to remove to this neighbourhood, and thus give to Hayes
Barton in East Budleigh the honour of being the birth-
place of the most accomplished Devonian of Devon's
greatest age. According to Westcote, Withycombe Ralegh
was held by the service of finding the King two good
arrows stuck in an oaten cake whenever he should hunt
on Dartmoor.

The Drakes were large owners of property in Withy-

4

50 History of Devonshire.

combe Ralegh, and the first wife of Walter Ralegh, the
father, was a Joan Drake. For his third he married
Katherine Champernowne, widow of Otho Gilbert, and
mother of Sir Humphry and Sir Adrian Gilbert. To no
other Devonshire woman has it been given to have three
such a nous sons to represent her in the list of worthies.
Hayes Barton, where Sir Walter was born in 1552, still
stands, and there are several interesting memorials of the
family in the church. To attempt to trace the life of
Ralegh, even in bare outline, is impossible here. More
than any other man of his time, he was the epitome of
the restless, many-sided spirit of the age — courtier, states-
man, philosopher, sailor, soldier — accomplished in all
manner of honourable professions, and a leader in each
one. His apprenticeship to arms being passed with the
Huguenots in France, his first sea voyage was taken
with Humphry Gilbert s disastrous colonizing expedition
in 1578. Next he served in stern fashion against the
Irish insurgents, and thus acquired the lands upon which
he afterwards introduced the cultivation of the potato.
Upon his return from Ireland he began his career as a
courtier; and he rose so rapidly that in 1587 he succeeded
Hatton as Captain of the Guard. Four years before this,
however, he had contributed the Ralegh to the expedition
in which Sir Humphry Gilbert took possession of New-
foundland, although her crew deserted their companions.
In 1584 he sent out the vessels, under Amadas and
Barlowe, which proved the abounding fertility of Virginia;
and in the following year planted a colony at Roanoake,
under Ralph Lane. Though his designs were doomed to
final failure, and no plantation made by him survived,
Ralegh persevered in the effort, at the cost of much
treasure and pains, for years ; and in the event it was
under his patent, though in other hands, that the first
English colony of Jamestown was founded. As Lord
Warden of the Stannaries, Ralegh was chiefly concerned

Exmouth and the Exe Estuary. 51

in the land preparations for the reception of the Armada
in Devon and Cornwall ; but he joined the fleet and had
his share in the great victory when his work on shore was
done. With the rise of Essex at Court the influence of
Ralegh waned ; while his secret marriage with Bessie
Throgmorton threw him into deep disgrace, and Elizabeth
in her anger sent him to the Tower. Released from
durance, he retired to his manor of Sherborne, and there
planned his expeditions to Guiana, the second of which,
in 1595, he himself conducted. Next we have him, by
his wise advice, securing the success of the expedition to
Cadiz in 1596, and winning all the honours of the ' Island
Voyage ' in 1598. When Elizabeth died, Ralegh had re-
gained his old position at Court; but the accession of
James was the prelude to his downfall. Falsely accused
of conspiracy, he was imprisoned in the Tower from 1603
to 1616. Then came his last voyage to Guiana, in search
of the golden city of Manoa, in which his ' braines were
broken ' by the loss of his son ; and in October, 1618, at
the dictation of Spain, the cowardly pedant James struck off
the head of the noblest Englishman of the day, who died
with ' the grace of a courtier, the dignity of a philosopher,
the courage of a soldier, and the faith of a Christian.'

East Budleigh was originally a market town, and,
according to Pole, had a Sunday market. It seems to
have been a little port, vessels frequenting the estuary of
the Otter, up to the fifteenth century; but Leland says
that in his time the haven was ' clene barred,' and that
the shipping had left for a hundred years. Budleigh
Salterton, upon the coast here, has developed of late
years considerably as a bathing-place. Here is the best
exposure of the Budleigh Salterton pebbles, a large pro-
portion of which contain Silurian fossils, and which seem
to have been derived from pre-Triassic extensions of
Silurian and Devonian rocks into the area now occupied

4—2

52 History of Devonshire.

by the Channel. In the distinctive name of the contiguous
parish of Newton Poppleford, popple — pebble, and is
still a current form of speech.

Topsham ranks next to Exmouth of the towns of the
Exe estuary. Though in modern days little more than a
riverside suburb of Exeter, it was anciently a port of con-
siderable importance. It was a market-town so far back
as the reign of Edward I. ; and it was for a long period
the chief seat of Exeter commerce, large vessels coming
no further than its quay. Topsham seamen had a
good deal to do also with the development of the
fishing-trade with Newfoundland ; and as one result of
this it is recorded that in the reign of William III. it had
more trade with Newfoundland than any other port in
the kingdom, London alone excepted. Unjustly taken
from the see of Exeter, as Leofric notes, by Harold, the
manor was for several generations in the Courtenays, who
used their connection with it to the disadvantage of
Exeter, when differences arose between the citizens and
their powerful neighbours. On their attainder it passed
to the Crown, afterwards vesting in the De Courcys. It
is now the property of the Hamiltons. Topsham had its
share in the troubles of the seventeenth century. When
Exeter was held by the Royalists, they built a fort here,
which was battered down by the Earl of Warwick, the
Parliamentary Admiral, who killed therein some seventy or
eighty men. For a short time in October, 1645, Topsham
was the headquarters of Sir Thomas Fairfax.

Weare, once the seat of a younger branch of the
Hollands, Dukes of Exeter, has been the residence
of the Duckworths since 1804, in which year it was pur-
chased by Admiral Sir Thomas Duckworth, the hero of
the passage of the Dardanelles in 1807, when for the
first time Constantinople saw the fleet of an enemy.

Topsham in all probability affords an instance of the

Exmouth and the Exe Estiiary. 53

preservation of a personal name from Saxon days, and is
equivalent to ' Topa's ham.' In the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries it was frequently called Apsom. It is
Topeshant in ' Domesday.'

The little stream of the Clyst, which falls into the Exe
at Topsham, has given name not only to the hundred of
Clyston, but to more manors and parishes than any other
river in the county save the Teign — a fact which indicates
the comparative populousness of this rich valley in Anglo-
Saxon times. There are Clysthydon, named from its
ancient lords the Hydons, now long in the Huyshes ; St.
Lawrence Clyst, of old time in the Valletorts, one of the
estates which Elize Hele bequeathed to charitable
purposes ; Broad Clyst, already noted ; Honiton Clyst ;
St. Mary Clyst, in the church of which Walter Ra)egh,
father of Sir Walter, took refuge from a band of the
Western Rebels for the restoration of Roman Catholicism,
and was rescued by a party of Exmouth seamen ; and
Clyst St. George, a small estate in which, held by the
annual tender of an ivory bow, was reputed to have been
in the family of Sokespitch from Saxon times, but was
really granted to them by Henry de Pomeroy, temp.
Henry II. Of other Clysts which have not survived as
parishes, Clyst Fomison is now the parish of Sowton ;
while Bishops Clyst, in Farringdon and Sowton, once in
the Sackvilles, was an ancient episcopal manor and
residence, and a little market town.

Nutwell, in the adjoining parish of Woodbury (which
takes name from ancient earthworks upon the high range
of moorland called Woodbury Common, and gave title in
the eleventh century to a fraternity known as the Wood-
bury Guild), is the chief seat of the Drakes of Tavistock,
the descendants of Thomas Drake, brother of the
renowned Sir Francis. It was long held by the Dinhams,
then passing successively to the Prideauxes, Fords, and
Poilexfens. These Drakes were on the Parliamentary

54 History of Devonshire.

side during the wars of the Commonwealth, and Nutwell
was garrisoned in that behalf. The first house of im-
portance here seems to have been built by Lord Dinham,
in the reign of Henry VII. The present Drakes of Nut-
well represent the old family through double female
descent. The first baronet of the line was Francis,
nephew of the circumnavigator, created in 1622 ; and this
title became extinct in 1794, when the last baronet
bequeathed his estates to his nephew, Lord Heathfield.
On his dying without issue, they passed in like manner to
his nephew, Thomas Trayton Fuller. The name of Drake
was resumed and a new baronetcy created in 1821.

Opposite Topsham, on the western shore of the
estuary, lies Exminster, indicated by its name as a place
of ecclesiastical importance in Saxon times, but to which
little that is noteworthy appears to attach. At the
present day it has rather an unpleasant reputation as the
location of the County Lunatic Asylum. The manor was
bequeathed by Alfred to his younger son, and at the
Domesday Survey was held by William Chievre, in suc-
cession to Wichin, but was not of any note. Several
distinguished families have been connected with Ex-
minster. The Courtenays, who are still lords of the
manor, are said to have had a magnificent mansion here.
Peamore, now the seat of the Kekewich family, was
formerly in the Cobhams and Bonviles, Tothills and
Northleighs. Shillingford, given to Torre Abbey by its
founder, William Lord Briwere, was purchased by the
Southcotes after the Dissolution, and, with other property
in the parish, has long been held by the Palks. The
vicarage is appendant to Crediton.

Next to Exminster comes Kenn, with its chief village
of Kennford, described in old records as a borough, and
having a market granted to its ancient owners, the
Courtenays, about 1299. The manor is now the property

Exmouth and the Exe Estuary. 55

of Lord Haldon, whose principal residence, Haldon
House, is in this parish. Haldon House was originally
built by Sir George Chudleigh, the last baronet of that
family, but the mansion and grounds owe their present
aspect to the improvements effected since they were
purchased by Sir Robert Palk. The Palks are an old
Devonshire race, who were seated at Ambrook, in Ipple-
pen, as early as the fifteenth century. Sir Robert Palk,
the first baronet, the son of Henry Palk, sometime
member for Ashburton, became Governor of Madras, and
in India acquired both title and fortune. In India, too,
he formed a very close friendship with Major- General
Lawrence, to whom he erected a monument at Haldon,
and whose name has been continued in the family ever
since. Sir Lawrence Palk, M.P. for South Devon (as his
grandfather had been for the undivided county), was
raised to the peerage in 1880.

Powderham Castle holds the first place among the
ancient mansions of the county. No other great house
continues so fully its olden glories. Nearly six centuries
have passed since the Courtenays first seated themselves
by the Exe, at Powderham, and there, amidst many
vicissitudes, they have continued. At the compilation of
' Domesday,' Powderham was one of the two Devonshire
manors of William de Ow, and on his forfeiture came
to a family who thence took name. The attainder of John
de Powderham led to the manor becoming the property of
Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford ; and his daughter
Margaret, in 1325, brought it to her husband Hugh, the
second Courtenay Earl of Devon. Earl Hugh gave it to
his younger son Philip, by whom the castle was built,
and in his descendants it has remained. When the
earldom of Devon, newly revived by Queen Mary, was
thought to have failed, through the death, without issue,
of Lord Edward Courtenay, in 1556, the Courtenays of

56 History of Devonshire.

Powderham continued simple knights, and subsequently
baronets, until Sir William, the third holder of the
baronetcy, was created Viscount Courtenay of Powder-
ham in 1762. William, the third viscount, in 1831, how-
ever, established his claim to the earldom created by
Queen Mary in 1553 (the title having been merely dormant,
and not extinct, for 265 years) ; becoming, in fact, the
tenth earl, though only the second who had borne the
title under Mary's patent. The present Earl of Devon is
the eighteenth Courtenay lord of Powderham.

Powderham Castle saw service during the struggle
between Charles and the Parliament, when it was strongly
garrisoned for the King. An attack made by Fairfax in
December, 1645, proved a failure, and the Roundheads in
their turn garrisoned the church. The castle was, how-
ever, taken early in the following year by Colonel
Hammond.

The House of Courtenay is the most distinguished
family of Devon. They have been called ' the ubiquitous
Courtenays,' for there is hardly a parish in the county
which is not linked with their history by some traces of
lordship or alliance. The history of the English branch
of this great house, whose famous coat of three torteaux
'at once waved over the towers of Edessa, and was
reflected by the waters of the Seine/ has been set forth
most graphically by Gibbon. Ranked among the chief
barons of the realm, it was not 'till after a strenuous
dispute that they yielded to the fief of Arundel the first
place in Parliament. Their alliances were contracted with
the noblest families— the Veres, De Spencers, Bonviles,
St. Johns, Talbots, Bohuns, and even the Plantagenets
themselves ; and in a contest with John of Lancaster, a
Courtenay, Bishop of London and afterwards Archbishop
of Canterbury, might be accused of profane confidence in
the strength and numbers of his kindred. In peace the
Earls of Devon resided in their numerous castles and

Exmoutk and the Exe Estuary. 57

manors of the West, and their ample revenue was appro-
priated to devotion and hospitality. In war they fulfilled
the duties and deserved the honours of chivalry. They
were often entrusted to levy and command the militia of
Devon and Cornwall. They often attended their supreme
lord to the borders of Scotland and Wales, and in foreign
service they sometimes maintained four-score men-at-arms
and as many archers. By sea and land they fought under
the standard of the Edwards and Henrys. Their names
are conspicuous in battles, tournaments, and in the
original lists of the Order of the Garter. Three brothers
shared the Spanish victory of the Black Prince, and in
the lapse of six generations the English Courtenays learned
to despise the nation and country from which they derived
their origin. In the quarrels of the Roses the Earls of
Devon adhered to the House of Lancaster, and three
brothers successively died either in the field or on the
scaffold. A daughter of Edward IV. was not disgraced
by the nuptials of a Courtenay. Their son, created
Marquis of Exeter, enjoyed the capricious favour of his
cousin Henry VIII. ; and in the camp of the Cloth of
Gold broke a lance against the monarch of France.
Among the victims of the jealous and tyrannical Henry,
the Marquis of Exeter was one of the most noble and
guiltless. His son Edward lived a prisoner and died in
exile ; and the secret love of Queen Mary, whom he
slighted for the Princess Elizabeth, has shed a romantic
colour on the story of this beautiful youth. The relics of
his patrimony were conveyed into strange families by the
marriage of his four great-aunts, and his personal honours,
as if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the
patents of succeeding princes. But there still survived a
lineal descendant of Hugh, the first Earl of Devon, a
younger branch of the Courtenays, who have been seated
at Powderham Castle above 500 years, from the reign of
Edward III. to the present hour. Their estates have

58 History of Devonshire.

been increased by the grant and improvement of lands in
Ireland, and they have been restored to the honours of
the peerage. Yet the Courtenays long retained the plain-
tive motto which asserts their innocence and deplores the
fall of their ancient house — ' Ubi lapsus, quid fed?1

The little town, or rather village, of Starcross, which
lies on the western side of the Exe Bight, is the most
important centre in the parish of Kenton ; and since the
construction of the South Devon Railway, efforts have
unavailingly been made to give it a commercial character.
It is best known now for its large philanthropic establish-
ment, the Western Counties Idiot Asylum. In Saxon
and early Norman days it was a royal demesne, and
subsequently held by the Courtenays until their attainder.
Kenton then reverted to the Crown ; and after its grant
by Elizabeth to Lord Clifton, passed in rapid succession
through Exeter, Hungerford, Monk (Duke of Albemarle),
and Grenville, until, early in the last century, it was once
more acquired by the House of Courtenay. Kenton lies
beneath the long Greensand ridge of Haldon ; and the
local proverb runs :

'When Haldon wears a hat,
Kenton beware a scat ;'

a cap of clouds on Haldon being an almost certain sign
of rainy weather.

CHAPTER IV.

AXMINSTER AND THE AXE.

EAST DEVON has all the marks of a populous and troubled
border-land of vast antiquity. Nowhere in all Devon are
there so many remains of the so-called ' camps ' or forti-
fied towns of the early Kelts within so narrow an area.
Taking Broaddown near Honiton as a centre, and exclud-
ing earthworks of minor importance, we have, for example,
Blackbury Castle, Bilbury Castle, Dumdun Castle, Far-
way Castle, Hocksdown Castle, Hembury Fort, Musbury
Castle, Membury Castle, Stockland Great and Little
Castles, Sidbury Castle, Widworthy Castle, Woodbury
Castle — all entrenchments, without masonry, notwith-
standing their 'castle' name. Within a radius of six
miles from Sidmouth, there are yet existing ninety-three
tumuli, many of notable size and considerable antiquarian
interest. The boundary-line between Devon and Dorset,
moreover, instead of following the natural features of the
country, is of so intricate and peculiar a character as to
render it evident that it was the result of hard and con-
tinual fighting, in which the possession on either side of
strong positions played an important part. And so, in
later times, though still in what are really prehistoric
days, as far as the absence of written record goes, we
have the important fact indicated by the character and
relations of the hundreds of East Devon that it was the

60 History of Devonshire.

first district of the county which the Saxons occupied in
force, and in which, in the earlier years of Saxon domina-
tion, most frequent changes took place.

Axminster and the valley of the Axe, clustered with
ancient towns and villages, first claim attention. One of
a group of ' minsters,' the like of which is not to be
found elsewhere, Axminster was in all likelihood founded
by King Ine, to commemorate and consolidate his con-
quests, after the great battle in 710, in which he defeated
Gereint, the king of the West Welsh. The town itself
was doubtless of far older date, and may even have had
being in some form in pre-Keltic times. The valley of the
Axe has of late years yielded from its gravels such large
numbers of chipped chert implements as to show the ex-
istence of a considerable population in Palaeolithic days.
It certainly was in some sense a Roman settlement, for it
lies on their direct route between Dorchester and Exeter.

This, however, is, and must remain, largely tinged with
speculation. The first direct mention of Axminster in
history is as the burial-place, in 785, of Cyneheard the
^Etheling, who killed Cynewulf. We must dismiss, as
unhistoric, a tradition that the minster was founded by
^ftelstan, and priests placed therein to pray for the souls
of seven earls and five kings who fell here in a great
battle at Calesdown, the fight raging to Colecroft by Ax-
minster. That the tradition, which is of very great anti-
quity, refers to actual fighting, may be granted ; but the
minster is much older than the date thus assigned, and
there appears to have been grafted upon the original
legend some memories of Brunanburgh, with which,
indeed, this fight has been mistakenly identified. But
Brunanburgh, the description of which in the ' Saxon
Chronicle ' is such a fine example of Anglo-Saxon poetry,
was certainly not waged in the West, and Devon cannot
claim ' that battle so fierce and so bloody, that never was

Axminster and the Axe. 61

there bloodier seen from the days when the Saxons and
the Angles, famous smiters in war, came over the broad
seas to put the Britons to rout.'

Two Alseminstres are mentioned in ' Domesday.' One
held by the King had four serfs, thirty villeins, and twenty
bordars, with a couple of mills, and was worth twenty-
six pounds a year. The other held by Eddulf, under
William Chievre, had four serfs and twelve bordars, and
was worth twenty pounds annually. Probably both
manors were included in the present parish, the first
representing the modern town, which would seem to have
continued with the Crown, possibly until John granted it
to his trusty noble, William Lord Briwere, from whose
family it passed to the Mohuns. John confirmed the
market to Briwere in 1204, to be held on Sundays as
accustomed ; and a few years later made the town a free
borough. Briwere built a castle, of which every vestige
has disappeared, though walls have been found in exca-
vating which apparently belonged to such a structure.

For some centuries the history of Axminster is that of
the famous and dominant Abbey of Newenham, planted
in the pleasant meadows by the winding Axe by Reginald
and William de Mohun in 1246 ; Reginald, however, being
the accepted founder. The first Cistercian colony con-
sisted of twelve monks and four lay brethren, under John
Goddard as abbot, from the monastery of Beaulieu. The
permanent buildings were begun in 1250, and were of
great magnificence and beauty, for the Abbey had many
friends, and Bishop Bronescombe and Bishop Grandisson
were among its most liberal benefactors. Reginald de
Mohun chose Newenham as his burial-place, and there
his body was deposited in January, 1257-8, the first of a
long line of illustrious personages, Bonviles and Mohuns
and others, whose bones are now washed out by the en-
croachments of the river from the long-desecrated site.
The church took thirty years in building, and was 280

62 History of Devonshire.

feet long; breadth across the transepts, 152. At the
surrender the estates were valued at £227 75. 8d. A
fragmentary wall is all that remains to mark the site. At
the Dissolution the manor of Axminster passed to the
Marquis of Dorset, then to the Duke of Norfolk, and was
sold in the reign of James I. to Lord Petre, in whose
family it remained until 1824.

Axminster was a good deal worried during the Civil
Wars of the seventeenth century, through being utilized
by the Royalist troops in their approaches to Lyme ; and
though the sympathies of the town leant rather to the
Cavaliers, it must have had a peculiarly unpleasant time.
Prince Maurice made it his headquarters for a while in
April, May, and June, 1644, but retired on the approach
of Essex. Subsequently, on the petition of the wealthier
residents, a royal garrison was placed at Axminster under
the command of Sir Richard Cholmondeley. This only
made matters worse, for the Roundheads of Lyme, under
the command of Colonel Ceeley (October 25th), assaulted
the town, routed the Royalists, and killed their captain.
And when, in the ensuing month (November I5th), Major
Walker, who had succeeded Sir Richard, attacked Lyme,
not only was he killed, with many of his followers, but the
remnant of the Cavaliers were chased into Axminster
Church, whence they could not be dislodged.

Axminster became Fairfax's headquarters in October,
1645 ; and it was at the village of Membury that he re-
ceived ' the only affront ' put upon him in the West of
England : a party of Royalist cavalry, led by Goring and
Wentworth> making a night attack, getting within the
guards, and capturing some sixty prisoners. Sir Shilstori
Calmady had been killed in a skirmish at Membury in
the previous February.

The town was the rendezvous of the Duke of Mon-
mouth on his first day's march from Lyme, where he had
landed June n, 1685 ; and here it was thought his first

Axminster and the A.rc. 63

battle would have been fought. The Devonshire and
Somerset militia, and the forces of Monmouth, were all
marching upon Axminster from different points within
view of the insurgents ; but the latter, doubling their
speed, gained the town first ; and Monk, who was in
command of the train-bands, deemed it expedient to
retire. Had Monmouth then taken Exeter, which he
could easily have done, the fortune of the campaign
might have been wholly different. That he had many
staunch followers in Axminster is recorded in the pages
of the ' Axminster Ecclesiastica,' a singular contemporary
record of the Independent Church there, which notes
also many of the local horrors of the Bloody Assize.

It was at Axminster that Lord Cornbury deserted
from James II. to William of Orange. He had brought
three regiments of cavalry from Salisbury westward,
under pretence of making a night-attack upon some
Dutch troops at Honiton. Suspicion being excited, and
his orders not being forthcoming when demanded, he
then made the best of his way to William with a few
followers only, instead of the important contingent he
had hoped to secure.

Apart from the miserable vestige of Newenham,
Axminster has only one antiquity, its church, originally
a fine fabric, still retaining a Norman doorway, and with
a couple of early effigies : Alice de Mohun, daughter and
heiress of Lord Briwere, and Gervase de Prestaller, her
father's chaplain.

Axminster gave name to a kind of carpet, which was
first manufactured there, in 1755, by Mr. Thomas Whitty,
a clothier, who developed the idea from an attempt to
imitate the Turkey fabrics. Eventually he produced the
finest carpets ever made in England ; and the manufacture
was carried on by the Whitty family until 1835, when
the looms were removed to Wilton. Among those who
attempted to retain the business in the town was Dr.

64 History of Devonshire.

Buckland, Dean of Westminster, the celebrated geologist,
and author of ' Reliquse Diluvianae,' who was born at
Axminster (1784-1856), and acquired his taste for science
in the Lias quarries of the locality.

As Newenham Abbey is the one Cistercian house of
Devon which has the least to show for its former great-
ness, so its neighbour-house of Ford is that which retains
the most. Ford lies seven miles from Axminster, and is
now in Dorset; but as the site, up to the year 1842,
formed a detached portion of Devon, it falls into place in
the history of this county. A Cistercian house had been
founded at Brightley, near Okehampton, under the patron-
age of the De Redvers family, in 1135. The patron
died in 1137, before the establishment was permanently
founded ; and finding it impossible to make good their
position for themselves, the monks resolved to return to
the mother-house of Waverley. They were on the road,
and had reached Thorncombe, when they were met by
Adelicia, sister of their former benefactor, Richard the
Viscount. She gave them the manor of Thorncombe,
on which they stood ; and thus, instead of returning to
Waverley, they founded the Abbey of Ford. This was in
1141. In September, 1142, Adelicia died also; and her
remains, with those of Richard de Redvers, which were re-
moved from Brightley, were buried within the church. At
the same time, the monks translated the remains of their
first abbot, another Richard, who had died at Brightley.

The Abbey flourished under the care of a series of
abbots, who contributed some prominent names to the
general history of the kingdom. The third abbot,
Baldwin of Exeter, originally a monk at Ford, became
Archbishop of Canterbury, after filling the See of
Worcester. John, the confessor of King John, a great
theologian, made Ford famous for its learning. The
church was completed in 1239. The last abbot was

Axminster and the Axe. 65

Thomas Charde, suffragan to Bishop Oldham, an emi-
nent scholar and divine, and, as the buildings of his
time show, an able architect. At the surrender, in 1539,
the revenue amounted to £374 los. 6Jd.

The Abbey passed in the first place by lease to Richard
Pollard, but was afterwards bought by him. Sir John
Pollard, his son, sold it to his cousin, Sir Amias Poulett ;
and he to William Rosewall, Elizabeth's attorney-general.
Sir Henry Rosewall sold it to Edmund Prideaux, under
whom Inigo Jones converted the domestic buildings into a
stately mansion. The Abbey continued in the Prideaux,
Gwyn, and Fraunceis families until 1847, when it was
once more sold ; and after being for a short time the
property of Mr. G. F. Miles, became that of Mr. Evans.
It was for some time the residence of Jeremy Bentham.

Although not a vestige remains of the monastic church,
the so-called chapel being really the chapter-house, ' no
Cistercian building in England, perhaps none in the
world, is in so perfect a state as that of Ford.' Thus
Mr. J. Brooking Rowe, who points out also that, ' in spite
of the interference with his architecture, and the incon-
gruities of Inigo Jones's additions, Charde's [Perpendi-
cular] work remains pre-eminently beautiful, and renders
Ford Abbey perhaps the most interesting building archi-
tecturally, as it is archaeologically, in the West Country.'

Returning to Axminster, and commencing our survey
of the lower portions of the Axe Valley, we find the first
point of interest in the remnant farmhouse of Ashe, a
couple of miles from Axminster towards Seaton, and just
over the borders of Musbury parish. Ashe is connected
with more than one distinguished personage, but is
specially identified with one of the greatest of English
generals. Given by the Courtenays to a family which
thence took name, it passed by marriage to the Drakes,
then of Exmouth. The most distinguished member of

5

66 History of Devonshire.

the Drakes of Ashe was that Sir Bernard Drake whom
Prince, in his * Worthies,' records to have boxed Sir
Francis Drake's ears for assuming the wyvern in his coat.
Be the story true or false (and Prince is not always trust-
worthy, while in this case his own connection with the
Drakes of Ashe may count for something) Sir Bernard
was a brave sailor, and did good service against the
Spaniards and Portuguese. He died in 1586, stricken at
the Exeter Assizes by gaol-fever, which killed the judge —
Serjeant Flowerby — five magistrates, and eleven jurymen.

Elizabeth, daughter of John Drake, grandson of Sir
Bernard, married Sir William Churchill, of Minthorne,
Dorset, who, as a staunch Royalist, was greatly harassed
during the Commonwealth. This led to his living for
some time with his wife at her father's house. Hence it
was that at Ashe there was born in June, 1650, John
Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough ; and hence
the name of that famous warrior is registered among the
Axminster baptisms.

The life of the Duke of Marlborough belongs to national
history rather than local, like that of so many more of
Devon's famous worthies. It was among his own native
hills, indeed, that he bore a part in subduing the insurrec-
tion of Monmouth ; but he seems in later life to have had
little if anything to do with the county, of which the victor
of Blenheim, with all his failings, must be ranked as one of
the most distinguished ornaments. He died in 1722, after
having won the highest honours the nation could bestow.

John Drake, uncle of Churchill, was created a baronet
in 1660, and his son re-edified Ashe, which had been
greatly damaged during the Civil Wars, utilizing
Newenham Abbey, of which one of his ancestors had
been steward, as a quarry ! The baronetcy came to an
end with its sixth holder in 1733, and the estate passed
to his widow. Her daughter by a second husband,
Colonel Speke, married Lord North, at Ashe chapel; and

Axminster and the Axe. 67

during a visit in 1765, that statesman was so scared by
the cries of a body of reapers, who were ' crying the neck '
at the close of harvest, with upraised hooks and the
traditional shout, ' We have un !' that he thought his life
was threatened. His friend Sir Robert Hamilton, seizing
a sword, rushed out to repulse the ' enemy,' when the
time-honoured custom was explained and all fears allayed.

Another notable house in the vicinity of Axminster is
Shute, for a long time the chief residence of the Bonviles,
and as such the centre of the Yorkist interest in the West.
William Lord Bonvile was the chief adherent of the party
of the \Vhite Rose in Devon, and played a prominent part
in the local controversies of the day. His daughter
Margaret married Sir William Courtenay, whose family
were almost to a man Lancastrian, but the feuds of the
Bonviles and the Courtenays were none the less severe
on that account. What has been termed a duel, in all
probability a set-fight, between Lord Bonvile and Thomas
Courtenay, Earl of Devon, came off upon Clyst Heath.
In October, 1455, Nicholas Radford, ' who was of counseil
with my Lord Bonvyle,' and who lived at Upcott Manor,
near Crediton, was murdered by a party of men headed by
the Earl of Devon's eldest son ; and when Parliament met
complaint was made of the ' grete and grevous riotes done
in the West Countrey betwene th' Erie of Devonshire and
the Lord Bonvile, by the which som men have been
murdred, some robbed, and children and wymen taken.'
Bonvile was not, however, the only staunch friend of the
House of York in these parts. There still remain at
Olditch, in Thorncombe, a few walls of the mansion of
Lord Cobham, which was attacked by a party of some 200
men * with force and armes arayd in man'r of werre ' under
James Butler, Earl of Ormond — Cobham being as hearty a
partizan of the White Rose as Wiltshire was of the Red.

The Bonviles were one of the families extinguished by
these wars. Lord Bonvile was beheaded after the second

68 History of Devonshire.

battle of St. Albans, and his son and grandson being killed
at Wakefield, Shute passed to his daughter Cicely, who,
by her marriage with Sir Thomas Grey, Marquis of
Dorset, became ancestress of Lady Jane Grey. Shute,
which retains its fine old Tudor gatehouse, has for some
three centuries belonged to the Poles.

The intricacies of its ground-plan have been assumed to
indicate a British origin for the little town of Colyton ;
and it is clearly one of those ancient places that have
grown up by slow degrees around an original hamlet, and
along the lines of the trackways connecting the houses
of the first settlers. Though never a place of any great
importance, it has been associated with not a few notable
families — the De Dunstanvilles and Bassets, Yonges,
Courtenays, Poles, Petres, and Drakes among the number.
The hamlet of Colyford, midway between Colyton and
Seaton, is probably of older date, was chartered by the
Bassets and the Courtenays, and had its fair and its
mayor, to whom the profits of the fair belonged. Coly-
ton, held by Harold before the Conquest, became a royal
demesne. It had a fair, granted by King John ; and for
some centuries was the chief market of the district.

The most notable manor in the parish is Colcombe, an
ancient seat of the Courtenays, who built a castellated
mansion there about the year 1280. They held it until
the attainder of the Marquis of Exeter in 1538. Then
the house fell into decay, but was rebuilt early in the
seventeenth century by Sir William Pole, the Devonshire
historian and antiquary. Since his posterity preferred
to live at Shute, Colcombe Castle, as it is popularly
called, was again deserted. Colyton, however, made its
first mark in history in connection with this quondam
dwelling of the Courtenays ; for Colcombe became the
headquarters of a detachment of Royalists, and as the
neighbouring town of Lyme was devoted to the Parlia-

Axminster and the Axe. 69

mentary interest, there was more than one sharp
encounter, which did not materially help the integrity of
the building. All that remains of this ancient mansion
now forms part of a farmhouse ; and the most interesting
memorial, alike of Colcombe and the Courtenays, yet to
be found in Colyton, is the ' Little Choky Bone' monu-
ment in the fine old church of St. Andrew. A noble
altar tomb, with canopy, contains the recumbent figure of
a girl wearing a coronet, with the royal and Courtenay
arms. ' Margaret, daughter of William Courtenay, Earl
of Devon, and the Princess Katherine, youngest daughter
of Edward IV., King of England, died at Colcombe,
choked by a fishbone, A.D. MDXII.' So runs the in-
scription ; but there are doubters, both as to the assign-
ment of the memorial and the cause of death. Many of
the Poles are buried in the church, and among them the
antiquary, whose ' Collections ' have formed such a rich
storehouse for the modern historian and genealogist. The
Poles have been settled in Devon from the reign of
Richard II.

In the town of Colyton are yet portions of the ' Great
House,' long the residence of the Yonges. Here Sir
Walter Yonge, in 1680, entertained the Duke of Mon-
mouth in his progress in the West of England. The
Puritanic sympathies of the townsfolk generally were
plainly manifested, not only when Colcombe was held by
the troops of Prince Maurice, but when the duke landed
at Lyme. Many Colyton men joined his standard ; not a
few were present at Sedgmoor ; and history, as well as
tradition, has sad tales to tell of the fate of those who fell
into the hands of ' Kirke's lambs,' or came before Jeffries.
One of these stories is that a wool-trader named Speed was
boiled in his own furnace ; and in any case Colyton had its
full share of hangings and quarterings. Several men em-
ployed by Sir William Yonge in building his mansion at
Escot, now the seat of Sir John Kennaway, and who joined

History of Devonshire.

the insurgents, were hung within a mile of his gates, though
he himself escaped.

The most notable worthy of Colyton parish is Sir
Thomas Gates, born at Colyford ; who, with his neigh-
bour and friend Sir George Somers, a native of the little
Dorset port of Lyme, sailed for Virginia, with a fleet of
nine vessels, in 1609. The vessel in which were Gates
and Somers was separated from the rest of the fleet by a
storm, and driven on the 'still vext Bermoothes.' No
lives were lost, and the stout-hearted adventurers took
possession of the little archipelago for the King, under the
name of the Somers Islands. At length they built vessels
to transport themselves to Virginia ; and on their arrival
Gates took up his office as Governor, and held it until his
death in 1620.

Axmouth is only the shadow of its ancient self; but its
antiquity is well attested by the fact that, although some
distance from the sea, it bears this name instead of
Seaton, which is really at the river's ' mouth.' Another
reason, alike for its age and ancient importance, is that
it gave name to one of the original hundreds of the
county, and this the smallest, so that the population here
in the early days of Saxon rule must have been com-
paratively dense. Moreover, it was a member as Axan-
muSa of the Woodbury Guild. The hill above is crowned
with earthworks ; and traces have frequently been found
which prove Axmouth to have once been something more
even than the ' olde and bigge fischar toune ' of Leland.
The church apart, it is a very unimportant place now.

Axmouth appears in ' Domesday ' as part of the royal
demesne ; but it passed to the Redverses, and was given
by Richard de Redvers to the Abbey of Monteburgh in
Normandy. Loders Priory, near Bridport, was a cell to
this abbey ; and Axmouth eventually became an append-
age rather of Loders than of the mother house. When

Axininster and the Axe. 7 1

Henry V. seized the possessions of the alien monasteries,
Loders was dissolved, and Axmouth given to the Abbey
of Sion. That in its turn suppressed, Axmouth became
part of the jointure of Queen Catharine Parr, and
Edward VI. gave it to Walter Erie. For some two
centuries it has been the property of the Hallets. Sted-
combe House, a seat of the Erles, was garrisoned by Sir
Walter for the Parliament, but taken and burned in March,
1644, by a party of Prince Maurice's troops. The Erles
then resided at Bindon, now a farmhouse, but retaining
many traces of its ancient state, particularly its domestic
chapel. Sir Walter Erie had been imprisoned for refusing
to lend money to the King, and in revenge seized Lyme
for the Parliament in 1642. At Rousdon, which is a
member of the manor of Axmouth, Sir H. W. Peek has
erected the most magnificent modern mansion in Devon.

Probably no greater divergence of opinion concerning
any matter of Devonian topography has arisen than
touching the site of Moridunum, the lost Roman station
between Durnovaria and Isca Dunmoniorum. The early
writers generally, from Camden onwards, including
Stukeley, Musgrave, Gale, Hoare, and Borlase, place it
at Seaton, regarding sea and mor as equivalents. Horseley
locates it at Eggardun, eight miles from Dorchester ;
Baxter at Topsham, four miles from Exeter; Mr. J.
Davidson and Mr. P. O. Hutchinson at Hembury Fort ;
Mr. J. B. Davidson at Honiton ; Mr. Heineken at Dump-
don. In truth, the whole district is singularly barren
of traces of Roman presence and intercourse, though
abounding in ' camps ' and relics of ancient life. More-
over, while one interpretation of Moridunum is Mor-
y-dun, ' sea-town,' another is Mawr-y-dun, the ' great hill
fortress.' Probably Hembury is the true site. There are
remains of a ' camp ' at High Peak, Sidmouth, that meet
the requirements of the Itinerary as to distance.

72 History of Devonshire.

Whether Seaton be the lost Roman station or not, a
few years ago it was a mere village ; now it is a ' watering-
place.' In time of yore, like other towns along this line
of coast, where the sea has made great inroads, it was a
port of some importance. But even when Leland wrote,
he had to say, ' Ther hath beene a very notable haven.'
That the Romans did something more than visit the
neighbourhood, the foundations of a Roman villa, ex-
cavated at Hannaditches in 1859, amply testify. The
older antiquaries have much to say of the discovery of the
remains of vessels and of the original harbour- works ;
but of late little has been found, though enough to show
that the Axe was navigable in the Middle Ages to a con-
siderable distance from the sea ; and to justify the con-
clusion therefore that in Roman times the harbour,
whatever the precise situation of the town, was one of
very considerable importance. Probably this is as far
as we can now get. The first definite authority here
is ' Domesday.' Beer and Flveta, which included
Seaton, are set forth as belonging to the Priory of
Horton, in Dorsetshire, and as having an enumerated
population of fifty-five. The Earl of Moreton had
taken from Beer a ferling of land and four salt-works,
but at Flveta the Priory had twenty salt-works, and this
was Seaton proper. When under Henry I. (1122),
the possessions of Horton went to the Abbey of Sher-
borne, Beer and Seaton passed with them, and so
continued until the Dissolution. The growth of Seaton
as a port was fostered by its monastic lords ; and in the
fourteenth century it had attained such importance that
it furnished two ships and twenty- five men as its con-
tingent to the Calais expedition. A century later new
harbour-works were needed, and we find Bishop Lacy
granting forty days' indulgence to true penitents who
should contribute to the works ' in nova portu in litterore
mxris apud Seton.' These works were the basis upon

Axminster and the Axe. 73

which at various times efforts were made to restore to
Seaton something of its old mercantile importance. The
Erles of Bindon took the matter in hand, and the late
Mr. J. H. Hallet spent considerable sums. Nay, in the
early part of the present century a novel effort was made
by the farmers of the neighbourhood, who sent so many
men each, according to the sizes of their farms, to dig
out the ancient harbour, and actually made considerable
progress before their efforts were defeated by a flood.

At the Dissolution, Seaton, like Axmouth, became part
of the jointure of Queen Catharine Parr, the reversion
being granted by Henry to John Frye of Yarty. He sold
it to the Willoughbys, and the heiress of Willoughby
brought it to the Trevelyans, its present lords.

The fishing village of Beer is about a mile from Seaton,
and the property of the Rolles. There is a local tradition
that it was resettled in the time of Elizabeth by the crew
of a wrecked Spanish vessel, who found the place almost
depopulated by the plague. Beer was the chief smug-
gling haunt of the East-Devon coast in the past century ;
and here lived the prince of Western smugglers, ' Jack
Rattenbury,' the pluckiest and luckiest of them all, whose
memory has already passed into the heroic, not to say
the mythical stage. Beer is a seat of the Honiton lace
manufacture. In the Middle Ages the chalk hills behind
supplied the most famous local * freestone ' of the county
— the ' Beer stone ' used for much of the older work in
Exeter Cathedral, and in the churches of Eastern Devon,
and finding its way much farther afield. The original
quarries are subterranean workings of great extent.

CHAPTER V.

SIDMOUTH.

No town in Devonshire has yielded a more concise and
complete numismatological record than Sidmouth ; for it
dates back to the time of the Romans, and has repre-
sentatives of almost every reign since the Conquest, with
illustrations of foreign intercourse in the coins of French
and other nations. Probably other ancient seaports might
prove equally rich, but none have been worked so vigorously
by competent local antiquaries. The most interesting find
of Roman times is the fragment of a bronze centaur, sup-
posed to have adorned one of the standards. Sidmouth
in Roman days had an open harbour, but this has been
long destroyed by the recession of the red sandstone cliffs;
and the little river now percolates to the sea through the
pebbles of the beach — so that Sidmouth is now altogether
a misnomer. It is probable, however, that in addition to
the outer harbour the channel of the Sid itself formerly
afforded access to shipping.

The recorded history of Sidmouth begins with the pos-
session of the manor by Gytha, mother of Harold. It
was then an appendage to Otterton, and after the Conquest
was given to the Norman St. Michael's Mount. The Prior
of Otterton acted as the deputy of the abbot of the
superior house. The Otterton cartulary is yet in existence,
and contains a list of the inhabitants of Sidmouth in 1260

Sidmoulh. 75

with the service of each. The whole sum raised for the
lord was about £ 18 a year, and Mr. P. O. Hutchinson has
calculated that the 160 tenants represent a population at
that date of some 600. Even then Sidmouth must have
been of some little importance, and it evidently retained
its harbour. The ' port ' is mentioned in the early part of
the fourteenth century; and the bailiff of the ville of
Sidmouth, as a seaport town, sent a representative to a
shipping council of Edward III.

St. Michael's Mount, as an alien house, lost the rich
manor of Sidmouth in 1414, and it was given to the
Convent of Sion. The year before the Dissolution it was
leased by Agnes Jordan, the last abbess, for ninety-nine
years, to Richard Gosnell. The manor, however, reverted
to the Crown, and was granted by Elizabeth to Sir William
Peryam. James sold it to Christopher Mainwaring, and
he disposed of the great tithes to Dorothy Wadham (who
gave them to Wadham College), and the manor to Sir
Edmund Prideaux of Netherton; in whose family it con-
tinued for nearly two centuries.

One of the proofs of the antiquity of Sidmouth is the
occurrence of remains of Norman work in the walls of
the church, rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in
1859-60, and dating historically from the dedication in
1259. The wrest window of this church is a memorial
to the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, who died
at Sidmouth in 1820. The window is a very fine one by
Ward and Hughes, and was presented by her Majesty.

Sidmouth may now seem an unlikely place to have
attracted the attention of the Duke and Duchess of Kent
as a pleasant residence for themselves and their infant
daughter; but it had sprung into considerable notoriety
as a fashionable resort some twenty years before, and
retained its reputation as the Torquay of the period for a
score of years afterwards. George IV., when Prince of
Wales, lived here for a short time with Lord Gwyder;

76 History of Devonshire.

and the fame of Sidmouth spread so far that in 1831 it
attracted for three months the Grand Duchess Helene of
Russia. These were the golden days of the little watering-
place, to which the old inhabitants still look fondly back,
although their town now enjoys all the advantages of
railway communication, and is keeping fairly abreast of
the times.

Concerning Otterton there is not much to say. The
Priory to which Otterton itself, Sidmouth, and other
manors in the neighbourhood belonged, as a cell of St.
Michael's Mount in Normandy, was a small foundation
for four monks only. It is said to have originated with
King John, but it is quite as likely that he simply confirmed
an arrangement previously existing. Its connection with
the Mount lasted until the fall of the alien houses. The
remains of the Priory are very scanty — a few fragments of
crumbling wall adjoining the church, and the venerable
' fayre house ' built by Richard Duke, purchaser after the
Dissolution, and the ancestor of the Duke family, now
represented in name and blood by the Yonges of Puslinch,
near Plymouth, and the Coleridges of Ottery, the two
coheiresses of Duke marrying into the families of Yonge
and Taylor, and the heiress of Taylor marrying Coleridge.

Bicton is associated with a very peculiar tenure, and
with an amusing series of historical blunders. Soon
after the Conquest, Bicton manor was granted to one of
the Norman followers of William — a certain William the
Porter, whose duty it was to keep the door of the gaol,
and who held Bicton by this service. This tenure con-
tinued for some 700 years, down to the year 1787 ; and
the early owners of the manor-house at different periods
took the names Portitor, De Porta, De la Porte, and
Janitor. From the Janitors it came to the La Arbalisters,
the Sackvilles, and the Coplestones, and by sale to
Robert Denis, whose heiress Anne carried it to Sir

Sidmouth. 7 7

Henry Rolle, of Stevenstone, from whom it descended to
the late Lord Rolle. It is now held by trustees during
Lady Rolle's life for the Hon. Mark Rolle, brother of
Lord Clinton. It was under the present family that the
ancient tenure came to an end. It had lasted long
enough to float a marvellous series of traditions, over
which nearly every historical writer in the county has
tripped — based upon the idea that where the tenure was
there the gaol must have been also ! Thus it is gravely
said that the county gaol was first at Harpford, and
then at Bicton, before it was removed to Exeter. West-
cote states that Henry I., who simply confirmed to John
Janitor the keeping of the gate of Exeter Castle and
gaol, moved the gaol to the city ; and the Lysonses aver
that it was moved from Bicton to Exeter for greater
security in 1518. Proof, however, is quite clear to the
contrary. Mr. P. O. Hutchinson discovered in the
' Hundred Rolls ' of Edward I. the statement that Bicton
was held in serjeantry by the service of keeping * Exeter
Gaol ;' and another entry to the same purport in the
' Testa de Neville.'

The village of Branscombe, with its partially Norman
church, claims a niche not merely in county but in
general history, from its personal connections. Soon
after the Conquest the property of a family named after
the place, it passed to the Wadhams, by whom it was
held for eight generations. Nicholas and Dorothy
Wadham, the last owners of that name, founding Wadham
College, appropriated thereto great portion of their wealth.
When Nicholas Wadham died, in 1609, he left his estate
to the families of Wyndham and Strangways. A monu-
ment in the church is appropriated to Dorothy Wadham.
The Wadhams lived in an old house still standing, called
Edge, or Egge.

Sidbury, like many other villages and hamlets of the
district, is a seat of the lace-manufacture. At Sand is

78 History of Devonshire.

the old Elizabethan mansion of the Huyshe family ; and
in the church, originally Norman, but rebuilt, is an in-
scription recording the death of one Henry Parson, * in
the second-first climacteric year of his age ;' and what
that might have been in Arabic figures, no one has been
able to decide.

A stone at the ' Hunter's Lodge,' five miles from
Sidmouth on the Honiton road, is the subject of very
diverse traditions. According to one, it is the slaughter-
stone of a band of witches ; according to another, it
covers a heap of treasure. Like some other huge stones
in the neighbourhood, it is said to go down into the
valley to drink when it hears the clock strike midnight ;
though a neighbour varies the performance by turning
round three times when twelve is heard. The latter
piece of folk-lore wit closely resembles the story told of
Roborough Rock, near Plymouth — a craggy mass which
from one point presents a singularly exact profile of
George III. This rock turns round whenever it hears
the cock crow ; and, if report speaks true, the per-
formance has been eagerly watched for by credulous
rustics.

CHAPTER VI.

HONITON.

UNLESS we are to assume that in Honiton we have the
lost Moridunum, its history begins with ' Domesday,' when
it was held by Drogo under the Earl of Moreton, who had
succeeded Elmer the Saxon. It was even then, however,
a place of no little importance, gelding for five hides, and
having land for eighteen ploughs, with a recorded popu-
lation of twenty-four villeins and ten serfs and bordars.
Moreover, it had a mill worth 6s. 6d., and two salt-workers,
rendering 55. The manor, however, did not reach the
sea or a tidal estuary, for the salt-works were those
referred to as having been appropriated by the Earl of
Moreton at Beer, so that each ' salinarius ' had charge of
two ' salinas.'

In the reign of Henry I. we find Honiton in the Redvers
family, and in that line it continued mainly until it came
to the Courtenavs. These held it until 1807, when the
third viscount sold it because — so current gossip averred
— his nephew had iwice been defeated in contesting the
representation. From that time until the borough was
disfranchised it changed hands several times, its chief
value lying in the political influence conferred.

Although situated on the main road into the county
from the south-east, Honiton makes a poor figure in the
national history ; and, save as a Parliamentary borough.

<5O History of Devonshire.

its importance has always been very slight. It sent repre-
sentatives so far back as the thirteenth century ; but inter-
mitted for some hundreds of years, and did not resume
until 1640. For a long period it was very much of a
family borough. Members of the Yonge family sat almost
continuously from 1640 to 1796 ; and the Courtenays and
Dukes were frequent representatives. The most notable
member of modern days was the famous Lord Dundonald,
when Lord Cochrane. Contesting the borough in 1806,
and losing the election, he paid all who voted for him ten
guineas. Shortly afterwards there was another election,
and the result of this liberality was that he went in with
flying colours. Then he declined to pay any more, and
denounced the venality of his constituents. The borough
was finally disfranchised in 1868. It was only made a
municipality in 1846.

There is a curious nut for antiquaries to crack in the
seal of the Honiton Corporation. So far as the device
goes, it is a copy of one presented to the town by Sir W.
J. Pole in 1640; but what this original device meant no
two writers seem to agree. The engraver of the modern
seal interpreted it thus : A pregnant female figure to
knees — whether kneeling is not clear — before a demi-figure
erased, with long hair, but apparently a male. Above, a
huge hand, fingers as in benediction ; below, a spray of
honeysuckle in bloom. One of the old antiquaries calls
the demi-figure an idol, and the hand obstetric, and con-
nects the device with an old legend that barren women
in Honiton, in old time, were directed to pass a whole day
and night in prayer in St. Margaret's Chapel, when they
would become pregnant by a vision. It has also been
thought to have some connection with the fanciful ety-
mology which interprets Honi as ' shame.'

Honiton many years flourished exceedingly by the wool
trade ; and for some two or three centuries has been a seat
of the manufacture of the lace to which it has given name,

Honiton. 8 1

though less Honiton lace is now made in Honiton itself
than in several of the other towns and villages in the
district. The art is said to have been originally intro-
duced by Flemish refugees, of whom many settled in the
neighbourhood, their descendants being yet traceable by
their names, though in many cases these are anglicised.
But the art may be of older date and have extended over
a much wider area, for it is to this manufacture that
Shakespeare alludes in ' Twelfth Night,' in language as
apt now as if written but yesterday in East Devon itself:

* The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
Do use to chant it.'

Like other East and North Devon towns, where thatch
has abounded, Honiton has had its fires; and in 1765, 115
houses and the Chapel of Allhallows were burnt. This
will account for the general absence of traces of antiquity.
There was an ancient chapel of Thomas a Becket.

The worthies of Honiton are few and far between. The
Pole family, now of Shute, appear to have sprung from
the little town ; but the most important individual notable
of old time is Thomas Marwood, physician to Queen
Elizabeth, who died — according to the epitaph on his
tomb in the old parish church — at the age of 105.
Honiton was also the birthplace of Ozias Humphry, R.A.
(1742-1810), an artist of great merit; and of William
Salter (1804-75), the painter of the * Waterloo Banquet/
One of his finest works, 'The Entombment of Christ/
was given by Salter to the church of his native town.

In the parish of Gittisham, but close to the Honiton
boundary, Johanna Southcott was born, about the year
1750. She was a woman of enthusiastic spirit, and,
though illiterate, of much natural ability. She founded a
sect which at one time had over 100,000 members, and

6

82 History of Devonshire.

which lingered on with a few earnest adherents — the men
distinguished, in shaving-days, by unfashionable beards —
until the last few years. Her special claim was to pro-
phetic power, and to being the woman of the Revelation ;
and in that capacity, deceived apparently by disease, she
in her old age avowed that she was about to become the
mother of Shiloh ; nor were the hopes of her followers
finally abandoned with her death in 1814.

An amusing legend attaches to a spot called ' Ring-in-the-
Mire,' where the parishes of Honiton, Farway, Gittisham,
and Sidbury meet. Ring-in-the-Mire is a small swamp,
whence a stream issues ; and the story is that Isabella de
Fortibus, Countess of Devon, having been annoyed by
disputes between these parishes concerning their boun-
daries at this point, ordered a party from each to attend
her, rode to the place, took a ring from her finger, and
threw it into the marsh, declaring that where the ring fell
these parishes should meet, and that she would never
more be pestered by their disputes. The name is un-
doubtedly of great antiquity ; but the tradition seems
made to order ; and, in all probability, ' Ring-in-the-Mire'
is a corruption of a far older and possibly Keltic name.
' Mire ' is suspiciously like mawr.

Netherton, in the parish of Farway, was given by
Walter de Clavill to the Monastery of Canonleigh, and
became the seat of the Prideaux family in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, its first owner of that name being Sir
Edmund Prideaux. Between Buckerell and Broad Hem-
bury rises the high ground which is crowned by the fine
earthwork now known as Hembury Fort, with 'its adjunct
or outwork, the long promontory occupied by Bushy Knap
and Buckerell Knap.' Hembury is the finest ' camp ' in
East Devon, and is the best claimant to be regarded as
Moridunum. Broad Hembury was parcel of the barony
of Torrington, and was given by William Lord Briwere
to Dunkeswell, the abbot of which, about 1290, obtained

Honiton. 83

the grant of a weekly market. At Carswell was a small
Cluniac Priory or cell to Montacute. Toplady, author of
the ' Rock of Ages/ was vicar here.

Mohuns Ottery, in Luppitt, was long the seat of the
famous baronial family of Carew, who claim the honour
of a traceable descent from Anglo-Saxon times. Several
members of this house acquired great renown in arms.
The Carews obtained Mohuns Ottery by the marriage
of Eleanor, elder co-heiress of Sir William Mohun, who
died in 1280, to John Baron Carew. Her son, another
John, who died in 1363, was one of the heroes of
Cressy, and held the distinguished post of Lord Deputy
of Ireland, losing his second son in the Irish wars.
Thomas Carew, grandson of the Lord Deputy, was like-
wise famed for his military prowess, and took part in the
victory of Agincourt, when he kept the passage of the
Somme. Several of the family came to untimely ends.
Sir Edmund Carew, who was knighted on Bosworth
Field, was killed in France in 1513; and three of his
grandsons fell in kindred ways. Sir John Carew, soldier
and sailor, was blown up in his vessel, the Mary Rose,
while engaging a French carrack. Philip Carew, Knight
of Malta, was slain by the Turks. Sir Peter Carew was
killed in Ireland. The last of the Carews of Mohuns
Ottery was Sir Peter, uncle of the last mentioned, and he
settled the manor on Thomas Southcott, who had married
his niece. Sir George Carew, Master of the Ordnance to
Elizabeth, created Earl of Totnes in 1626, was a younger
son of this house, now represented by the Carews of
Haccombe.

6—2

CHAPTER VII.

OTTERY ST. MARY.

THE earliest feature in the history of Ottery is ecclesias-
tical. Undistinguished then from other Otreis that took
name from the river along which they lay, it was granted
by the Confessor, in 1061, to the Abbey of St. Mary at
Rouen, and thus acquired an association which in later
times gave it the title of St. Mary Ottery, or Ottery St.
Mary. ' Domesday ' records it the wealthiest manor in the
district. Taxed at 25 hides in the time of the Confessor,
there were 46 carucates in 1086. Moreover it had 17 serfs,
55 villeins, 24 bordars, and 5 swineherds, by way of popula-
tion. There were three mills, and a saltwork at Sid-
mouth, in the land of St. Michael ; and the latter fact will
help to explain the association of saltworks with Honiton.
Bishop Grandisson, however, is the real founder of
Ottery, as we have it now. He seems to have had
differences with the monks of Rouen, finally settled by
his purchase of the manor from them in 1335. Two
years later he founded the College at Ottery, dedicated to
Our Lady and St. Edward the Confessor, of which the
noble church is now almost the only structural relic. This
College, which he endowed most liberally, consisted of
forty members with a warden, and one of its earliest
prebendaries was that Alexander Barclay to whom we owe
the English ' Ship of Foolis.'

Ottery St. Mary. 85

Ottery has the finest parish church in Devon, remark-
able in its transeptal arrangements as being a reduced
copy of Exeter Cathedral. Local tradition will have
it that the cathedral is the copy, an assertion which
a glance at the two buildings is sufficient to controvert.
The church was originally built by Bishop Bronescombe,
possibly on the site of an older edifice of which no
traces remain, but was largely added to and in part
rebuilt by Grandisson, who erected therein some family
monuments. To the Early English work of Bronescombe,
and the Decorated of Grandisson, the Perpendicular
Dorset aisle was added by Cicely, daughter and heiress
of Lord Bonvile (lord of the manor of Knighteston in
Ottery parish), who married, first, the Marquis of Dorset,
and, secondly, the Earl of Stafford. The farmhouse of
Bishops Court takes its name as being reputedly a
residence of Bishop Grandisson.

When the College was dissolved a corporation was
created, to whom Henry VIII. granted the church and its
appurtenances, with the collegiate buildings, tithes, and
other properties (saving the tithe of corn), the duty of
the corporation being to pay certain annuities to the
vicar and schoolmaster, and to maintain the church and
school ; the latter apparently a free grammar school,
which took the place of the ancient school of the College.

It is to this fact that Ottery owes its most famous
personal associations, for it was while his father, the Rev.
John Coleridge, was both vicar of Ottery and master of
the school that Devon's foremost poet, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, was born here in 1772 (d. 1834). Since then
the names of Coleridge and of Ottery have been inseparably
associated ; and the fame won by the author of ' Chris-
tabel ' and the ' Rime of the Ancient Mariner ' has been
continued in succeeding generations of his family.
Among the Coleridge memorials in Ottery churchyard is
a magnificent granite cross of Irish character, erected in

86 History of Devonshire.

1877, to commemorate the late Sir John Taylor Coleridge
(b. Tiverton, 1790), Judge of the Queen's Bench, and
editor of the Quarterly Review between the death of Gifford
and the appointment of Lockhart in 1826. Sir John's
son, the present Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of
England, now resides at the family seat of Heath's
Court.

Several notable Devonians were educated at Ottery
grammar school. Two of the most distinguished, beyond
the various members of the Coleridge family, were the
martyred Bishop Pattison — whose life and labours are
commemorated by the nave pulpit in Exeter Cathedral —
and Richard Hurrell Froude. Henry VIII. appears to
have contemplated that it should become a chief educa-
tional centre for the county ; but that expectation has
never been approached ; and, until revived by a new
scheme in 1883, it had dwindled into utter decay.

Ottery St. Mary has a very unimportant place in general
history, though from its position on the main road into
the county it was frequently visited by distinguished folk.
The Parliamentary troops were quartered in the church
for five weeks in 1645, when the pestilence began to rage,
and they moved.

Thatch has caused Ottery several visitations of fire.
The last was in 1866, when in houses were burned, and
500 persons rendered homeless.

CHAPTER VIII.

CULLOMPTON AND BRADNINCH.

THE valley of the Culme contains some of the earliest
settlements of the Saxons in Devon ; and seems to have
formed the chief road by which the encroaching Wessex
immigrants pressed on from Somerset after Devon had
been reduced to Saxon sway. Even yet it retains a few
distinctive characteristics.

Cullompton is the chief town in the valley. As a part
of the royal demesne, the manor was bequeathed by
Alfred to his son ^ESelweard ; and in Saxon times there
was founded here a collegiate church with five prebends,
which the Conqueror gave to the Abbey of Battle ; but
which afterwards passed to the Priory of St. Nicholas in
Exeter, and so continued until the Dissolution. The
manor, granted by Richard I. to Richard de Clifford,
afterwards came to the Redvers Earls of Devon, and the
first grant of a market was made in 1278 to Earl Baldwin.
Being one of the manors given by Isabella de Fortibus to
the Abbey of Buckland, a further grant of market and
fair was made to that fraternity in 1317. After the Disso-
lution, the manor was for some time in the St. Legers
and Hillersdens, whose ancient seat of Hillersdon is in
the parish.

Cullompton was one of the homes of the woollen trade,
and to this fact the church owes its most notable feature.

88 History of Devonshire.

The Lane Chapel, erected by John Lane in the early part
of the sixteenth century, is one of the best Devonshire
examples of florid Perpendicular. An inscription runs
round the exterior of the aisle, which used mightily to
puzzle the learned, seeing that it was supposed to confer
on Lane the novel dignity of ' wapentaki custos lanuarius,'
when all the while he only asked to be remembered ' with
a paternoster and an ave.'

Uffculme, adjoining Cullompton on the north-east,
appears to have had a more considerable trade in serges
than either of the smaller towns in the vicinity ; and had
the grant of a market so far back as 1266. Advantage
was taken of the river to erect machinery, driven by
water-power ; and the result was that about the middle
of the last century the place flourished mightily. But
decay followed close upon. The manor was part of the
barony of Bampton. Bradfield House in this parish,
though the manor chiefly lies in Cullompton, has been
the seat of the Walronds since the reign of Henry III.,
when they succeeded a family of the Bradfield name.
The house is one of the most interesting sixteenth-century
mansions in the county, and the hall still retains its
original roof and characteristics.

If the defensible element in the name have any special
meaning, Culmstock, another ancient market-town and
seat of the woollen manufacture, may be the oldest of
the Saxon settlements on the Culm ; but, beyond the
statement that it was given by ^Et5elstan to his minster
in Exeter in 938, it calls for no further remark.

The last of the Culme Valley villages in this direction is
Hemyock, concerning which there must be much more
to be known than has been learnt. The Hidons built a
castle here, of which there are yet important remains,
including the main gateway and its towers, and part of
the general cincture. It is an edifice of great strength,
and of some peculiar characteristics — Early Edwardian in

Cullornpton and Bradninch. 89

general character ; but of its history absolutely nothing
seems to be known, save that it was garrisoned by the
Roundheads, and used by them as a prison. The manor
was long in the Dinhams.

The Abbey of Dunkeswell, sheltered among the neigh-
bouring hills, was founded in 1201 by William Lord
Briwere. Two years previously, he had acquired the
manor of Dunkeswell, and this formed part of the
endowment of the Abbey, with Briwere's lands in
Wolford and at Uffculme. Dunkeswell was colonized by
monks from Ford, and the convent of that place was
liberal of its gifts to the daughter house. There were
also other donors, so that the Abbey had a very fair
start in life. Dunkeswell was chosen by the founder as
his burial-place in 1227, and it is presumed that his wife
was also buried there. Not long since, two stone coffins
were found within the ruins of the Abbey Church, one
containing the bones of a man, and the other those of a
woman ; and these are believed to have been the remains
of Lord and Lady Briwere. All the bones were placed
in one of the coffins, and reinterred. The annual value
of the Abbey lands at the surrender was just £300. The
history of this house was uneventful, and only a few
fragments of the building remain.

Bradninch, south of Cullompton, is one of the oldest
towns in Devon, so far as record goes ; and in the later
Saxon days must have been the most important centre
from the source of the Culme to its junction with the Exe.
Held by Brichtwold under the Confessor, and part of the
demesne of William Chievre under the Conqueror,
' Domesday ' enumerates thereon no less than 7 serfs, 42
villeins, and 16 bordars. Moreover, it had a mill, and its
annual value was £14. Perhaps this importance was the
reason which led to its being attached as an honour or
barony to the earldom of Cornwall, in favour of his

90 History of Devonshire.

natural son Reginald, by Henry I. Appendant to the
earldom when that merged into the dukedom, since then
it has formed part of the duchy estates. The seal of the
town bears the date 1136, which may be intended to
indicate the year when it came into possession of Earl
Reginald. It does not seem to have been chartered until
1208, when King John granted the burgesses all the
liberties and free customs which the city of Exeter
enjoyed. Under Edward II. members were returned to
one Parliament. The town was first incorporated as a
municipality by James I. in 1604; and the Mayor of
Exeter, according to ' Bradneys lore/ has to hold the
stirrup of the Mayor of Bradninch whenever the two
dignitaries meet. Beyond being the headquarters of
Charles in 1644, and of Fairfax in 1645, and being almost
consumed by fire in 1665, there are no points in the long
history of Bradninch worthy of special record.

Hele, now chiefly known for its paper-mills, was the
original seat of the elder branch of the ancient Devon-
shire family of that name.

The church of the adjoining parish of Plymtree
contains a screen, which has been described in a valuable
volume by the late rector, the Rev. T. Mozley. The
chief feature is a fine array of painted panels. One of
the groups figured represents the Adoration of the Three
Kings, and in this Mr. Mozley identifies the portraits of
Henry VII., Prince Arthur, and Cardinal Morton, 'the
most remarkable Englishman of his period,' of whom
there is no likeness extant if this be not one.

Silverton Park, in the parish of Silverton (which once
boasted a weekly market), is one of the seats of the
family of Egremont. Among the portraits here is that
which Reynolds painted of himself for the Corporation
of Plympton, and which they sold for £150 when that
borough was disfranchised.

CHAPTER IX.

TIVERTON.

TIVERTON is a very old town, taking name from its
position at the junction of the rivers Exe and Loman,
formerly the Suning. Tradition avers that in the reign
of King Alfred it was a village on a little hill, the capital
of its hundred, and having twelve tithings, and governed
by a portreeve. Legend also claims it as one of the
places in which the Danes were massacred by order of
JE^elred. Be all this as it may (or may not), it is pretty
clear that a church was erected on the site of the present
St. Peter soon after the Norman Conquest, and this is said
to have been consecrated by Leofric in 1073. But this
would not be the first place of worship Tiverton could
boast, and possibly we have here a British ecclesiastical
foundation — as certainly a Saxon. Before the Conquest
Tiverton formed part of the royal demesne, with the
hundred of which it was the head, Gytha holding it in
the reign of Harold ; and it was a place of such im-
portance at the compilation of ' Domesday,' that it had
an enumerated population of 68, while several of the
adjacent manors seem to have been populous like-
wise.

In the reign of Henry I. the manor passed to the family
of Redvers, and Richard de Redvers, about the year 1106,
built the castle, which continued one of the principal seats

92 History of Devonshire.

of that powerful family for several generations. At the
death of Baldwin de Redvers in 1245, his widow, Amicia,
claimed the manor and lordship of Tiverton as part of
her dower. It had then a weekly market arid three fairs
annually. Her daughter, Isabella de Fortibus, was a
great benefactor to the town, giving an estate called
Elmore for the pasturage of the cattle of the poor in-
habitants ; and being, it is said, the donor of the Town
Leat, a stream of water conducted some five miles for the
use of the townsfolk. The last of the family of Redvers
that held the manor was Isabella's daughter Avelina,
who married Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, second son of
Henry III. ; and Tiverton then passed to Hugh Courtenay,
the first Earl of Devon of the Courtenay line. By the
Courtenays Tiverton was held, with an interval under the
Yorkist rule, when the Duke of Clarence was one of the
lords and Sir Richard Ratcliffe another, until the attainder
of the Marquis of Exeter.

Mary restored it to Edward Courtenay; but on his
death it passed, with other estates of the house, into other
families by the marriages of his coheiresses ; and the
Carews of Haccombe have been the dominant owners, in
succession to the family of West, since 1759. The manor
at one time was subdivided into forty parts, but nearly all
became concentrated in the Carews.

The Courtenays were good lords to the town. The
first earl, Hugh, divided the rectory into four portions.
Westcote amusingly says that this arose from the greed
of a chaplain who was not satisfied with the living as it
stood, and complained to his patron. The earl told him
that he would give him a living more proportionate to
his deserts, if he would resign this. The chaplain re-
signing accordingly, the living was divided, and the fourth
only offered to the late incumbent — ' thereby fayrely taught
to lyve by a crown that would not lyve by a pound.' Earl
Hugh the first also gave the tolls of Tiverton market to

Tiverton. 93

the poor. His son obtained the name of ' the good earl/
and the inscription on his stately tomb in Tiverton church
ran:

' Hoe hoe, who lyes here r

'Tis I, the goode Erie of Devonshere,

With Kate my wyfe, to mee full dere;

That wee spent wee hadde,

That wee gave wee have,

That wee lefte wee loste.'

Tiverton Castle has borne its share in the history of
Devon, though not so prominently as its importance would
suggest. It had part in the wars of Stephen, and was of
some little note in those of the Roses, as a Lancastrian,
and afterwards as a Yorkist stronghold. In after years it
was the place where the Courtenays lived in their greatest
splendour. It stood a siege, moreover, in the wars of the
Commonwealth. Tiverton town leant strongly to the
Parliament ; but the castle was garrisoned for the King,
the church being also occupied as an important outpost.
In October, 1645, General Massey was detached by Fairfax
to besiege the works, which were then under the command
of Sir Gilbert Talbot. After battering awhile, the castle
and church were taken by storm on Sunday the igth,
with much slaughter. The castle is now one of the
residences of the Carews, and portions of Edwardian
date still stand.

No town in Devon was at one time more actively
engaged in the woollen manufacture than Tiverton, the
city of Exeter hardly excepted. The trade seems to
have begun so far back as the fourteenth century ; and in
the sixteenth it brought great wealth to those engaged in it.
This prosperity continued with fluctuations until the latter
half of the last century. Then decay set in, helped by
quarrels between the employers and the workmen, which
developed at times into serious riots. Tiverton is a
manufacturing town of importance still, in consequence

94 History of Devonshire.

of the establishment of a flourishing lace factory there by
Mr. Heathcoat just sixty years ago. He introduced the
manufacture of lace net by machinery, and thus completely
revolutionized this branch of trade. His patent was taken
out in 1810, but the factory at Tiverton was not founded
until 1816, when difficulties with his workpeople induced
him to leave his former residence and settle in Devon.

Several of the old clothiers of Tiverton made good
use of their wealth, notably Peter Blundell, by whose
munificence Blundell's school, the chief of the public
schools of Devon, was founded in 1604. Blundell was
born in 1523, of parents who were so poor that he had to
run errands and otherwise wait upon the carriers for his
support. Saving a little money, he commenced business
by sending a piece of cloth to London on sale by one of
his friends and employers. Gradually he accumulated
enough to go to London on his own account, and finally
he began the manufacture of kerseys. Dying unmarried,
he left the whole of a large fortune for the promotion of
learning and various charitable purposes. His school was
well endowed, and has acquired and maintains a very
high reputation : and the old buildings have not long been
abandoned for new and more commodious premises in a
better situation. Among earlier benefactors to the town,
connected with the same industry, was John Greenwaye,
who erected the Greenwaye chapel and a set of almshouses,
about the year 1517, the chapel being the most elaborate
and notable portion of the Church of St. Peter. With
John Greenwaye was associated his wife Joan. And so
another set of almshouses were built by ' John Waldron
and Richoard his wyfe,' in 1579. No town in Devon,
and certainly very few in the kingdom in proportion to
their size, had so many charitable bequests and gifts, and
of such value, as Tiverton ; but they had sadly depreciated
when a century since worthy Martin Dunsford compiled
the first account of them, and dedicated his ' Memoirs '

Tiverton. 95

of the town ' to all the virtuous and industrious poor of
Tiverton.'

Tiverton has been noted, too, for the number and
ravages of its fires. The first recorded was in April, 1598,
when, in the course of an hour and a half, 400 houses and
several public buildings were burnt, and £150,000 worth
of property destroyed, while 33 persons lost their lives.
This was a severe blow to the town, which only eight
years previously had lost one in every nine of its popu-
lation by the plague. But still worse was in store, for
in August, 1612, the whole of the town was burnt, with
the exception of the castle, church, school, and almshouses,
and about thirty poor dwellings. Six hundred houses
were then destroyed, and the total loss was estimated at
£200,000.

It is stated to have been partially the result of this that
a charter of incorporation was granted by James I. in
1615. From that date to 1885 Tiverton was a Parlia-
mentary constituency; but there is a statement that a
couple of burgesses had been previously returned to the
first Parliament of James I. by the ' potwallopers.'

The next big fire was in November, 1661, when 45
houses were burnt ; another in 1730 destroyed 15 dwellings,
with loss of life ; and in June, 1731, there was one of the
older type — 298 dwellings being consumed, and 2,000
persons rendered homeless. Towards the loss of £60,000
there were £11,000 contributed, the King giving £1,000.
Twenty houses were burnt in 1762, 25 in 1773, 47 in 1785,
20 in 1788.

Blundell is the most notable of the worthies of
Tiverton ; but there is an old proverb which may refer
to a real personage of even greater importance in his
own day : ' Go to Tiverton and ask Mr. Able.' Hannah
Cowley, the dramatist, born Parkhouse (1742-1809), was a
native of Tiverton ; and the town has produced several
artists of high repute. Richard Cosway, R.A., a miniature

96 History of Devonshire.

painter of the greatest merit, who died in 1821, was the
son of a master of BlundelPs school ; John Cross, his-
torical painter (1819-1861), was son of the superintendent
of the lace factory ; Richard Crosse, though born at
Knowle, near Cullompton, painter in enamel to George
III. (1745-1810), a deaf mute, may also be named here.
And Tiverton may finally claim, as a worthy by adoption,
the late Lord Palmerston, seeing that he sat for this quiet
little borough from 1835 until his death, the pride of both
political parties.

A battle was fought at Cranmore Castle, near Colli-
priest, adjoining Tiverton, in 1549, in which a party of the
insurgents who rose for the restoration of Roman
Catholicism were defeated, and several hung and quar-
tered.

There are several places of historical interest in the
vicinity of Tiverton. Worth, in Washfield, is one of the
three places in Devon which still remain the possession
and residence of families of the same name, the Worths
having been seated there since the thirteenth century.
The other examples are Fulford of Fulford and Kelly of
Kelly, of which more anon. The Exe Bickleigh was the
birthplace of the notorious Bampfylde Moore Carew
(1690-1758), ' the king of the beggars,' whose father,
Theodore Carew, was sometime rector. Not far distant,
on opposite sides of the Exe Valley, rise the rival heights
of Cadbury and Dolbury, crowned by ancient earthworks,
of which the rhyme runs, evidently archaic :

'If Cadbury Castle and Dolbury Hill dolven were
Then Devon might plough with a golden coulter
And eare with a gilded shere ' —

so vast is the treasure that lies therein hidden under
charge of a fiery dragon ! Fairfax made Cadbury his
rendezvous, December 26th, 1645.

Tiverton. 97

Halberton church was given by William Earl of
Gloucester to the Abbey of St. Augustine ; and, with the
manor of Halberton Abbot, or Halberton Dean, passed
to the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The adjacent
village of Sampford Peverell, described in old records as
a borough, had a somewhat considerable woollen manu-
facture. Named from its ancient lords, the Peverells, it
was some time in the Dinhams and the Paulets. One
of its owners was Margaret, Countess of Richmond,
mother of Henry VII., who is said to have lived here,
and built the south aisle of the church, which contains
the defaced effigy of a crusader, supposed to be Sir Hugh
Peverell, 1259.

CHAPTER X.

BAMPTON.

BAMPTON affords a notable instance of decadence. A
very poor little market-town now, it was once the head of
an honour held of the Conqueror by Walter de Douay.
Previously it had formed part of the royal demesne.
* Domesday ' records a population of 68, including 15
swineherds, rendering io6J pigs, whose presence indi-
cates the existence of extensive woods, set down as 320
acres. A hide adjacent to the manor had been held by
five thanes, and here Walter had three tenants, with
eight serfs, bordars, and villeins ; while half a furlong was
held by William de Moion, unjustly to the said Walter.
There was also a mill ; and the value of all Bampton was
£ 18, but had been £21.

A chalybeate spring here led Polwhele to call Bampton
a Roman station : his etymology for the river Batham,
on which it stands, being Bath-therma — hot baths ! But
the Batham was originally no doubt the Baeth, and the
town Baeth-ham-tun, unless the ham be, as Dr. Pring has
suggested in * hampton ' suffixes, a corruption of the Keltic
avon, through aw or aun. It has been claimed as the
Beamdune where Kynegils defeated the Britons in 614 ;
but that was Bampton in Oxfordshire.

Walter de Douay's son, Robert de Bampton, had an
only daughter, who brought the manor to the Paganells ;

Bampton. 99

and thence again it passed to the Cogans by the marriage
cf the Paganell heiress to Sir Milo Cogan, 'the great
soldier and undertaker of the Irish Conquest.' Her
descendant, Richard Cogan, had licence in 1336 to
castellate his mansion house at Bampton, and to empark
his wood and other lands at Uffculme. Every vestige of
the castle has long disappeared. The Fitzwarrens,
Hankfords, and Bourchiers were successively lords of the
manor, and it was afterwards purchased by the ancestor
of the present Earl of Portsmouth.

John de Bampton, the Aristotelian Carmelite (d. 1391)
was born at Bampton. In the following century the
church was made the subject of a singular exchange. It
had belonged to the Prior of Bath ; but was given, under
an Act of Parliament in 1439, to the Abbot of Buckland,
in compensation for surrendering his jurisdiction in
Plymouth, as lord of the hundred of Roborough, the
burgesses paying the Prior of Bath in his turn 10 marks
annually.

The adjacent parish of Morebath (and the name affords
additional evidence of the original name of the river) was
once the property of the Abbey of Barlynch, of which a
few traces yet remain within a short distance of
Dulverton, in Somerset. Clayhanger claims notice as
having been the property of the Knights Templars, who,
according to Tanner, had a hospital there. The Knights
Hospitallers are subsequently said to have held the
church.

Wadham in Knowstone parish, the original residence
of the Wadhams, is one of the few Devon manors noticed
in ' Domesday,' as continuing in the same Saxon hands
from the reign of the Confessor, and the Lysonses suggest
it as not improbable that the holder, Ulf, may have been
the ancestor of the Wadham family. There is at any rate
nothing to militate against this hypothesis. Knowstone
gave Devon a worthy in Sir John Berry, an eminent

7—2

TOO History of Devonshire.

naval officer, and sometime Governor of Deal (1635-1691),
born here while his father was vicar. He was of a
younger branch of the Berrys of Berry Narber. His
father, through adherence to Charles I., died in great
poverty, and the son was at first apprenticed to a trades-
man at Plymouth. His master failing, he walked to
London, and obtained employment in a small vessel. By
dint of ability and pluck, he speedily rose to the rank of
captain in the navy. He served with the greatest dis-
tinction and success against both French and Dutch, and
at length reached the highest honours of his profession,
valued alike by the second Charles and James, and by
William.

At Canonleigh, in Burlescombe, not far from the
Somersetshire border, are the remains of a monastery,
originally founded by Walter Claville, temp. Henry II.,
for a prior and Austin canons. Maud de Clare, Countess
of Gloucester, converted it, however, in the reign of
Edward I. into a nunnery for an abbess and canonesses
of the same order. At the Dissolution, the house had a
clear yearly rental of £197 3s. id. A market had been
granted to it in 1286. The lands by exchange became
the property of Sir George St. Leger. In Burlescombe
parish is Ayshford, the seat of one of the oldest families
of this part of Devon, now represented on the female
side by the Ayshford Sandfords, of Nynehead.

Holcombe Rogus takes name from Rogo, its tenant
under Baldwin the Sheriff, from whom it descended,
through Chiseldon (Richard Chiseldon obtained a market
in 1343), to the Bluetts. Colonel Francis Bluett, an
active Cavalier, was killed at the siege of Lyme in 1644.
Spurway, in Okeford, was the original seat of the family
of that name.

CHAPTER XL

SOUTH MOLTON.

SOUTH MOLTON is the principal centre in a district
skirting the southern flank of Exmoor, which is singularly
barren in features of historical interest. Probably the
Melarnoni of the Ravennat ; an ancient market-town of
considerable importance ; largely engaged in the serge
and shalloon manufacture; represented in Parliament
in the reign of Edward I. ; incorporated by Elizabeth
in 1640 — never but once did it forsake the even tenor
of its business way. And then it was rather by acci-
dent than design that John Penruddock and Hugh Grove
here proclaimed Charles II. in 1655, and formally com-
menced a rising which, so far as they were concerned,
never got further than words, but led to their execution
at Exeter on the i6th of May following. Penruddock
and Grove were Wiltshire Royalists, and with their
followers were taken prisoners by a party of soldiers
under Captain Crook.

The most interesting facts about South Molton are
connected with the families of whose estates it formed
part. Originally ancient demesne of the Crown (one
virgate was held of the King by four priests in alms at the
compilation of ' Domesday '), in the reign of Edward I
it was held by Lord Martin, under the Earl of Gloucester,
by the service of finding a bow with three arrows to

IO2 History of Devonshire

attend the Earl when he should hunt in Gower. It was
afterwards held by the Audleys, by the Hollands, and
was granted for life to Margaret, Duchess of Richmond,
in 1487. Other manors in the .parish now belong to Earl
Fortescue and Sir T. D. Acland.

The adjoining parish of North Molton is a mineral
district, and has yielded small quantities of gold. The
manor was part of the portion of Eadgytha, \vife of the
Confessor, and was given by John to Roger le Zouch.
From the Zouches it passed to the St. Maurs, then to
the Bampfyldes, and is now the property of Lord
Poltimore. The church was given by Alan le Zouch,
circa 1313, to the monastery of Lilleshull, in Shropshire.
North Molton is also the ancient dwelling of the Parkers,
now Earls of Morley; and the Lysonses suggest that
before the Reformation they were tenants of this house.
A holy well here still retains some reputation, Holy
Thursday being the special day of visitation; and at
Flitton is one of the most famous oaks in Devon, 33 feet
in circumference close to the ground. Here, too, is the
chief home of the leading strain of the famous native
Devon cattle ; while the rugged expanse of Exmoor ad-
joining is still tenanted by herds of the wild red-deer.

Molland, or Molland Bottreaux, had a dominant
position in the hundreds of North Molton, Braunton,
and Bampton, taking their third penny, and having the
right to a third of the pasture of animals on the adjacent
moors. Before the Conquest it belonged to Harold, and
it passed to William. Shortly after the Conquest it
came to the Bottreauxs, whence its second name, and
continued in that ancient house until the reign of
Henry VI. The church was given by William de
Bottreaux to Hartland Abbey. The Bishop of Cloyne
regarded Molland as a British town, and it certainly does
lie upon an ancient trackway ; but that it was the Roman
station Termolus of Richard of Cirencester, which the

SoutJi Motion. 103

Bishop had ' no hesitation ' in fixing, is an assertion
that in the present day hardly needs to be controverted.
Even if the authority were accepted, there is no trace
whatever of the Roman in the neighbourhood.

Romansleigh, indeed, lying some miles to the south-
west, has, on the strength of its name, been held to
support the hypothesis of Roman occupation. It is
really, however, Rumonsleigh, from St. Rumon, the
patron saint of Tavistock Abbey, which had an estate
here.

In Filleigh is Castle Hill, the seat of Earl Fortescue,
the representative of this most ancient and distinguished
family, whose surname, as in their motto, Forte scutum,
salus ducum, is said to signify a c strong shield.' The
common ancestor was settled at Wimpston or Wymon-
deston in Modbury, which, according to the family tradi-
tion, was given to Richard le Forte, shield-bearer to the
Conqueror, for his good services at Hastings. * Domesday '
disposes of this by showing that Wimpston (Winestane)
was held by Reginald de Valletort under the Earl of
Moreton. John Fortescue was, however, settled at
Wimpston in 1209 ; and the elder branch continued to
live there until early in the seventeenth century. The
family branched out from Wimpston to Preston, Sprid-
dleston, Shipham, Wood, Fallapit, Wear Giffard,
Filleigh, and Buckland Filleigh in Devon, and settled
also in Cornwall, Hertford, Essex, Buckingham, and
Ireland.

Of its many distinguished members the most celebrated
is Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice (1442) and
Chancellor to Henry VI., who was born at Noreis in
North Huish, and was author of the great work on
jurisprudence — ' De Laudibus Legum Angliae.' From him
descends the present Earl Fortescue. Other notable
Fortescues are Sir John, Captain of Meux in France,
temp. Henry V.; Sir Henry, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland;

IO4 History of Devonshire.

Sir Adrian, who did service at Calais for Henry VII.; Sir
Edmund, of Fallapit, High Sheriff for Charles I. and
Governor of the Castle of Salcombe ; Sir Faithful, who
also rendered good service to Charles, whom he joined at
Edgehill. The public services of the late Earl Fortescue
are commemorated by a statue in the Castle Yard, Exeter.

The Fortescues obtained the manors both of Filleigh
and of Wear Giffard by the marriage of Martin Fortescue,
son of the Chief Justice, with the heiress of Densell, who
represented the Giffards in the female line. Wear then
became the chief seat of this branch of the Fortescues,
and so continued for a considerable time. Castle Hill
has, however, long been their residence, and in the early
part of the last century was greatly improved and
enlarged.

In the adjacent parish of West Buckland is the Devon
County School, one of the earliest, if not the earliest, effort
to provide good middle-class education upon modern lines
for rural districts.

Swymbridge, according to Risdon, is the birthplace of
St. Hieritha, a contemporary of Thomas a Becket.

CHAPTER XII.

CREDITON.

IT is in the year gog, and at Crediton, that the ecclesiastical
history of Devon on the present order begins. Seven
centuries before that date Christianity had reached these
shores ; and the existence of an organized Church among
the Kelts can be traced very nearly thus far back. The
British Church held its own in Devon down to the Saxon
settlement of the county under Ecgberht ; and retained
the chief power in the further West, although in later
years pressed hard by the Roman invaders, as the
adherents of the elder system deemed them, until the
approach of the tenth century. But its influence gradually
waned, and in gog the ecclesiastical order of Wessex was
made complete by the consecration in one day of seven
bishops. Of these Eadulph was one ; and he became
the first Saxon Bishop of Devon, with a partial rule in
Cornwall, having assigned to him the manors of Pawton,
Callington, and Lawhitton, that he might thrice yearly
visit ' the Cornish race to extirpate their errors.' The
fact that these three places are all in the east and north
of Cornwall probably indicates a greater Saxon influence
in that district of the county.

It has been shown that Crediton offered peculiar
advantages for the establishment of the bishop's seat,
which probably led to its selection in preference to the

io6 History of Devonshire.

chief town of the shire — in the facts that it was * central,
not too large, free from secular interference ; the ton, the
place of the Saxon — hallowed by its associations with
the great missionary, the earnest and devoted Wynfrid.'
These considerations must have had their weight in the
selection of a place of perhaps a couple of hundred in-
habitants for this purpose (the enumerated population in
' Domesday ' is but 407). It is further probable, however,
that personal considerations, which it is now impossible
to trace, had some influence in the choice.

The original Cathedral of Crediton was dedicated to
the Virgin, and stood on or near the site of the present
Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross. Leland, who says
that the dedication was to St. Gregory, states that the
old church stood by the side of its successor ; but of this
there is no distinct evidence. Nine bishops in succession
ruled at Crediton, or Cridiantune, its Saxon name. Under
the last but one, Lyfing, the Bishopric of Cornwall was
united to that of Devon; and under his successor, Leofric,
the seat of the see was transferred to Exeter, one of the
chief reasons assigned being the defenceless state of the
little ' tun ' of the Creedy against the pirates, or Danes.
The removal of the see was followed by what in effect
became a removal of the minster — the Saxon Cathedral
of St. Mary was replaced by the Norman Collegiate
1 Church of the Holy Cross, and of the Mother of Him
crucified thereon,' with its eight canons and eighteen
vicars. Herein it is recorded that on the ist of August,
1315, one Thomas Orey, of Keynesham, who had been
totally blind, recovered his sight after spending two days
in prayer before the altar of St. Nicholas. Bishop Stapledon,
being satisfied of the truth of the miracle, ordered the bells
to be rung and a solemn thanksgiving offered, and set forth
the event in his * Register.' The church is now in the
hands of a corporation of governors.

In the time of the . Confessor Crediton was the most

Credit on. 107

valuable manor belonging to the see, with the exception
of Bishops Tawton ; but when ( Domesday ' was compiled
it had a long way distanced all its competitors, the value
having risen from twenty-one pounds to seventy-five.
Originally taxed at 25 hides, it had 185 carucates. Six
hides and 13 carucates were in demesne ; there were
40 serfs, 264 villeins, and 73 bordars, with 172 caru-
cates; and 30 swineherds, returning 150 swine yearly.
There was a mill also, worth thirty pence. The woods,
as may be judged from the number of swineherds,
were very extensive — five miles long and half a mile
broad.

The manor of Crediton, with a brief alienation, con-
tinued to belong to the See of Exeter, and the bishops
retained there a residence and park. The palace is now
represented simply by a buttress, and the park indicated
by the name of the ' Lord's Meadow.' Under its episcopal
lords the little town seems to have flourished ; and the
cloth trade, by which it mainly throve, is supposed to
have been established under Bishop Grandisson. Crediton
gained great fame for the fineness of its work, so that ' As
fine as Kirton spinning ' passed into a proverb, and West-
cote avers that one of the sights of London, at the shop
of ' Mr. Dunscombe, the Golden Bottle, in Watling Street,'
was 140 threads of woollen yarn spun in Crediton, drawn
through the eye of a tailor's needle.

There is ample proof, indeed, that Crediton was a place
of considerable trading note so far back as the thirteenth
century. Among documents relating to Crediton, entered
upon a roll in the British Museum, is a letter of procura-
tion from the Archdeacon of Totnes in 1249, stating that
he will be unable to attend a meeting of the Chapter of
Crediton and take part in ' treating and contracting with
the merchants who frequent our church,' and appointing
his brother Archdeacons of Exeter and Cornwall his
proctors. The suggestion is that these merchants were

io8 History of Devonshire.

' contractors for the wool grown upon the estates belong-
ing to the canons of Crediton, and that at this meeting
the prices were fixed and the contracts settled.' This
shows the importance of Crediton as a mart of the woollen
trade six centuries since. There were several foreigners
living in or near the town at this time — the Peytevin
family, who were succeeded by the Widgers, ' Lord ' Seer,
a Knight of the Teutonic Order, one Richard Marchpain,
and others.

Crediton was once a borough, and sent representatives
to Parliament temp. Edward I. The old seal is still ex-
tant, dated in 1469 : ' THE SELLE OF THE BOROWE TOWNE
OF CREDYTON.' The device is a bishop in benediction,
probably intended for Bishop Bothe, lord of the manor
of Crediton at the date given. The association of Crediton
with the Western Rebellion, which began at Sampford
Courtenay, when ' The barns of Crediton ' became a
rallying-cry, has been treated under Exeter.

The earliest worthy of Crediton is also the earliest
Devonian known to us by name — Wynfrid, St. Boniface,
the Apostle of Germany. Born of Saxon parents at
Crediton in 680, converted to the Roman form of Chris-
tianity— probably by travelling monks — first trained in a
Saxon school at Exeter, and then at Nutschelle in Hamp-
shire, he devoted all his working life to the conversion of
Germany, and its reduction under the Roman rule.
Eventually he became Archbishop of Mentz, and the
spiritual head of the whole German kingdom, and was
martyred in old age (75), when attempting to convert the
still heathen portion of Friesland. No one of his day did
more to spread Christianity among the heathen, or to
destroy the influence of the elder British Church.

Crediton was occasionally occupied by both parties
during the last Civil War, but saw no fighting. It was
the headquarters of Prince Maurice for a time, in 1644 ;
and in July of that year Charles was at Crediton, and

Credilon. 109

reviewed his troops. Fairfax made it his headquarters
more than once early in 1646.

The town had its * great fire ' in 1743, when 460 houses
were burnt ; and there was another serious one in 1769.

Several of the estates in and about Crediton are or
have been connected with ancient families of the county.
Downes, which once belonged to the Goulds, is now the
property of the Bullers ; Greedy of the Davies. Yewe, in
the tithing of Yewton, is said to have been formerly held
under the bishops by the barons of Okehampton, by the
service of being stewards at their installation, for which
they had all the vessels in which the bishop was served at
the first course. This right was, however, claimed at the
installation of Bishop Stapledon by Hugh Courtenay, as
lord of the manor of Slapton, his fee being four silver
dishes, two salts, one cup, one wine-pot, one spoon, and
two basins. Higher Dunscombe was the seat of the
Bodleys.

Shobrooke, now in the Shelleys, was long in the Erce-
deknes, whose heiress brought it to Carew. Little
Fulford wras the seat of the Peryams, established there by
Sir William Peryam, Lord Chief Baron. Raddon, in the
same parish — which, after giving name to the family
of Raddon, was in the Martyns and Audleys — in the reign
of Henry VIII. was partially acquired by the Westcotes.
Here, in 1567, was born Thomas Westcote, the anti-
quary, and author of the ' View of Devonshire in 1630.'
Of the parishes of Stockleigh, distinguished by the affixes
Pomeroy and English, the names of their ancient owners, it
has been mistakenly held that the latter title indicates a
descent in Saxon hands. This idea, however, ' Domes-
day ' at once dispels. At Upcotts, in Poughill, was the
scene of the murder of the Yorkist Radford by the Lan-
castrian Thomas Courtenay, already noted.

Newton St. Gyres was part of the ancient endowment cf

1 1 o History of Devonshire.

the original cathedral, the Church of the Holy Cross at
Crediton, which held it before the reign of the Confessor ;
and it passed, with Crediton, to the See of Exeter. In
later days it came to Plympton Priory ; and, after the
Dissolution, the manor was divided, for several genera-
tions, between the Quickes and Northcotes, the former
acquiring the whole in 1762. Hayne is the old Northcote
seat.

At the meeting-point of the three parishes of Crediton,
Colebrook, and Down St. Mary, stands a massive granite
shaft, known as Coplestone Cross. The head, if it ever
had any, has long been lost ; but the shaft is perfect —
ten feet six inches in height, and one foot six and a half
inches in breadth at the top. It is four-square, and each
side is covered with carving, the special feature of which
is that twisted and interlaced ornament, generally held to
be of Keltic origin, comparatively common in the North of
England, but which occurs nowhere else in Devon, and is
but rarely met with in Cornwall. Each side of the cross
contains three panels, no two exactly alike ; while on one
face figures are introduced. There is no doubt that this
monument dates at least from the earlier period of Saxon
Christianity, when it was customary for the lords of land
where there were no churches, to erect crosses of wood or
of stone, to which outlying ceorls or serfs might repair to
offer their prayers. It may be as old as the Crediton
bishopric (909), and possibly is older. But it is not much,
if at all, later, for it finds mention in a Saxon charter of
974, by which Eadgar grants three hides of land at Nymed
to his faithful ^Elfhere. The boundaries of these three
hides begin and end at Copelanstan, and they agree with
the present estate of Coplestone, which is about 160
acres in extent.

From the Copelanstan these three hides afterwards took
name, and they were granted, as an endorsement on the ori-

Crediton* \ i r

ginal charter certifies, by the venerable priest Brihtric to the
minster of Crediton, some time before the Norman Con-
quest. At an unknown but very early period, however,
the estate passed into the hands of one of the oldest of
Devonshire families, who thence took name, and who
proudly held themselves to be descended from an English
ancestor who kept his lands through the Conquest, the
ancient rhyme running :

' Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,
When the Conqueror came were found at home.'

These families fill a prominent place in Devonian his-
tory ; but neither can be linked on to any of the English
thegns who retained their estates. The Coplestones
held chief place of the three, and were called the ' Great
Coplestones,' and ' Coplestones of the White Spur,'
having, according to Westcote, the special grant of a
silver collar, or chain of SS., and of silver spurs. Cople-
stone, however, is no longer theirs ; though the Coplestone
aisle remains in Colebrook church.

The Crockers have long ceased out of Lyneham, their
ancient seat near Yealmpton, but the Cruwys remain
connected, through the female line, with their old estates
in Cruwys Morchard, which they have certainly held since
the reign of King John.

The origin of the name Copelanstan is doubtful ; but
very likely it is the * headland ' or * the chief stone.'

CHAPTER XIIL

CHULMLEIGH.

CHULMLEIGH, an ancient market-town, once enjoying the
reputation of a borough, was a member of the barony of
Okehampton, and long held by the Courtenays, who had
a castle here, of which no trace remains. Garland is
supposed by Prince to have been the birthplace of John
de Garland, a poet of the eleventh century, and it con-
tinued in the Garlands until the close of the seventeenth
century. Chulmleigh Church was once collegiate, with
seven prebends, originally distinct from the rectory.
The manner in which Westcote accounts for this is an
amusing version of an old myth which has many forms,
and which is most familiar in its assignment to the
Guelphs. A poor man of Chulmleigh was troubled at
the rapid increase of his family, and went on his travels
for seven years. A year after his return, however, his
wife was ' delivered of seven male children at one byrth,
whiche made the poore man think himself utterly undone ;
and, thereby despairing, put them into a baskett, and
hasteth to the river with intent to drowne.' ' The lady
of the land,' however, happening to come that way,
demanded * what lie carryed in his baskett, who replied
that he had whelpes, which she desired to see, proposing
to choose one of them.' Finding, however, that they
were children, she insisted on an explanation ; and, that

Chulmleigh. 113

given, sharply rebuked him for his inhumanity, had the
children put to nurse, then to school, ' and consequently
being come to man's estate, provided a prebendship for
every of them in this parishe.'

There was a little fighting at Chulmleigh in the Civil
Wars, Colonel Okey defeating a party of Cavaliers in
December, 1645 ; and on the February following, Fairfax
rendezvoused at Ashreigny hard by.

Eggesford, also a possession of the family of Reigny,
like the parish last named, passed by female heirs to the
Coplestones and Chichesters; and Lord Chichester re-
built the manor-house in the reign of James I. This was
one of the mansions garrisoned for the King in the
subsequent reign, but it was captured by Colonel Okey
in December, 1645. From the Chichesters the manor
came to the St. Legers ; and of them it was bought early
in the last century by Mr. Fellowes, ancestor of the
present owner, the Earl of Portsmouth. The house,
which has been rebuilt and enlarged at various times, is
now the principal residence of the family ; and one of
the most important hunting centres in Devon.

The large and important manor of Umberleigh, ex-
tending over the parishes of Atherington and High
Bickington, has been held by some notable families —
chief the Willingtons (to whom it came from the
Champernownes) and the Bassets, its owners from the
sixteenth century. A mutilated figure in Atherington
Church, brought from the Chapel of the Holy Trinity at
Umberleigh when it was pulled down in 1800, is supposed
to represent the last Champernowne seated here, temp.
Henry III. The screen-work in this church is very fine ;
and the church of the adjoining parish of Chittlehampton
has the reputation of possessing the finest tower in
Devon, which looks, indeed, as if it had been transpHnted
from Somerset. St. Hieritha, said to have been born at
Swymbridge, is also said to have been buried here. More

8

H4 History of Devonshire.

certain is it that the church contains fourteenth-century
brasses to the Cobleigh family. They succeeded by
marriage a younger branch of the Fitzwarrens, who had
taken the name of Brightley from their estate ; and this
was brought by the heiress of the Cobleighs to a younger
branch of the Giffards of Halsbury, who held it for
several descents. Hence the title of Lord Halsbury,
taken by Sir Hardinge Giffard on his recent elevation to
the Lord Chancellorship. Umberleigh in * Domesday ' is
entered as the ' manor of the Church of the Holy Trinity
at Caen,' whence, of course, the dedication of the chapel.
An interesting group of parishes, etymologically and
thence historically, lies to the south of Chulmleigh. Nymet
Tracy, commonly called Bow, after a decayed town of
that name, which once had a market, granted to Henry
Tracy in 1258, and which was the scene of a skirmish
between Sir Hardress Waller and some Royalist troops,
wherein the former was successful ; Nymet Rowland ;
and Broad Nymet, which, in spite of its name, is the
pettiest of the three, the smallest rural parish in Devon.
With these are to be associated George, Kings, and
Bishops Nympton, occasionally called Nymet also,
grouped but a few miles distant to the south and west of
South Molton. 'Newtake' is an expression used on
Dartmoor for an enclosure from the waste ; and, as Mr.
R. J. King has shown, these ' Nymets ' are precisely the
same in meaning and in fact, nymei being the participle of
the verb nyman, to take. They mark, therefore, the sites
of ancient enclosures, or appropriations, long before the
Norman Conquest.

".A

CHAPTER XIV.

BARNSTAPLE.

NORTH DEVON is so thickly seamed with a network of
ancient roads, still in use or long abandoned, as to show
that it had in pre-Norman times, to distinguish no
further, a fairly large population, dotted in numerous
settlements. These ancient trackways are, as a rule,
circuitous, and have been deeply worn by the traffic of
ages — such being the main characteristics of the proverbial
Devonshire lanes. A century since, they were described
as 'rough and rocky; watery and miry in some places,
deep and founderous in others ; the hills precipitous, and
the lanes everywhere narrow, with the hedges on each
side too high to afford the traveller any prospect.' Better
kept now than then, they still retain their leading
features ; and these very hedge-banks, ranging even to
30 feet in height, which in the old days had some value
in screening the traveller from the sun in summer, and
sheltering him from the driving storm in winter, grow
more beautiful year by year in their floral carpeting.

Mr. J. R. Chanter has further pointed out that 'near
Bratton, and at several other points north and east of
Barnstaple, especially in the mining districts of North
Molton and Cornbe Martin, and the ports and creeks of
the Severn Sea, the pedestrian may still trace many
deeply sunken lanes — mere clefts, which it is impossible

8—2

1 1 6 History of Devonshire.

to imagine can have been formed otherwise than by long-
continued attrition of the feet of men and cattle for ages ;
and yet now they are never used nor traversed, and form
concealed nooks thickly covered with vegetation, and
ferns, particularly the scolopodendria, growing in the
utmost luxuriance ; and others which, though still in use,
bear unmistakable marks of extreme antiquity.'

These roads were traversed by a purely local breed of
horses called pack-horses, which carried their burdens in
panniers, or on rough saddles known as * crocks.' They
were a very useful handy race, unfortunately now lost,
though occasionally a strain makes its appearance here
and there. Tradition ascribed them to a cross of the
native pony of Dartmoor and Exmoor with a horse that
escaped from the wreck of a vessel of the Armada. The
story is more than doubtful, but the race had a dash of
the thoroughbred. There are yet living those who
recollect when it was a common thing to meet long strings
of pack-horses, the best of the lot proudly leading the way.

Now since Barnstaple, alias Barum, the capital of
North Devon, lies at the very heart of the densest net-
work of these ancient roads, its high antiquity is clear,
though there are no authoritative records of its origin.
The suggestion that it may be the lost Artavia of Richard
of Cirencester might have more weight if the authenticity
of his so-called * Itinerary ' could be proved ; though even
then Hartland puts in a claim on the score of similarity
of name, and Clovelly Dikes as presenting the most
important relics of an ancient town in the district. Mr.
Chanter has ingeniously shown that Artavia is near akin
to Aber-Taw, which would be very good Welsh for the
site of Barnstaple ; and there can be little doubt it is the
Vertevia of the Ravennat.

The borough appears to have grown up around a
military settlement. This tradition, with somewhat more
than its usual uncertainty, attributes to the Danes. It

Barnstaple. 117

must once have had considerable strength. The ancient,
town stood in a rude triangle, bounded on two sides by
the Taw and by its tributary the Yeo. Near the apex
was the castle ; landward the town was defended by a
strong wall, the course of which is denned by the present
Boutport Street ( = ' About-port ' street, port being used
in its old sense of town). Of this wall there are no
vestiges ; the gates one after another have disappeared ;
and of the castle there only remains the mound. ^Selstan,
the traditional founder of the castle, did probably translate
it from earthen rampart into mural fortress, and at the
same time restore and extend the cincture. Be that as it
may, ' Domesday ' describes Barnstaple as one of the four
boroughs of Devon, having forty burgesses within the
walls and nine without, and eleven that belonged to the
Bishop of Coutances. It was then held by the King, but
became the seat of a barony, sometime in the Tracys,
Martyns, Audleys, and Hollands, among others.

Its first Norman lord was Judhel of Totnes, who
founded a Cluniac Priory, dedicated to St. Mary Mag-
dalene, valued at the Dissolution at £129 153. 8d. One of
the most curious antiquarian discoveries of recent years
in Devon has been the finding of the remains of the
twelfth-century chapel of this Priory in the main walls of
a couple of ancient but much modernized dwellings, so
perfect as to enable its plan, which is somewhat peculiar
—on the basilica type — to be distinctly traced. The
Priory lands were granted to Lord Howard of Effingham,
and part was eventually purchased by the Rolles, whose
present representative, the Hon. Mark Rolle, is Lord High
Steward of the borough. A chapel dedicated to Thomas
si. Becket, which stood at the end of the bridge, is said to
have been founded in expiation during the Tracy rule by
William de Tracy, who took part in that prelate's murder.
Like most of the Tracy traditions, this is doubtful.

The bridge, by the way, is historical. It is some six or

1 1 8 History of Devonshire.

seven centuries old, but nothing is known with certainty
as to its founder. In the thirty-sixth year of Henry VIII.
the ' maior and maisters ' sent out a begging letter to
obtain money to improve the structure and its causeways,
setting forth that the Taw was a ' great hugy, mighty,
perylous, and dreadfull water, whereas salte water doth
ebbe and flowe foure tymes in the day and the night,' and
offering ' a gentle dirge and masse solemly songe ' to all
benefactors. It is amusing to contrast this description
with the actual river. Perhaps the stream has learnt
manners since an embankment was thrown up on the
western shore by one of the Sir Bourchier Wreys of
Tawstock, towards the close of the last century. Being
the colonel of an infantry regiment stationed at Barnstaple,
he employed the men in raising these earthworks and
improving his foreshores. The Corporation didn't like it,
and complained to headquarters. The authorities wrote,
asking what was meant ; Sir Bourchier replied that he was
teaching his men ' practical engineering.' And there the
matter dropped, possibly because the gallant colonel was
a member of Parliament as well as an officer. Barnstaple
Bridge is in the hands of a body of trustees, who hold
considerable property. Their antiquity is fairly indicated
by their seal, which is of fourteenth-century character and
nearly three inches in diameter. It shows the bridge, the
Chapel of St. Thomas, and a Calvary Cross, and between
the latter an eagle displayed. The inscription sets forth
that this is the seal of the ' long bridge ' of Barnstaple.

The corporate and representative history of Barnstaple
is of almost unique interest, in the controversies to which
it has given rise. The Corporation proper dates from
Philip and Mary, but the town had sustained its pre-
scriptive right to a mayor two centuries before. The
earliest charter extant is by Henry II. confirming a pre-
decessor from Henry I. The latter has disappeared, but
in certain proceedings taken in the time of the third

Barnstaple. 119

Edward, the burgesses asserted that they had a charter
from ^E-gelstan which had been lost, and which not only
gave them a right to choose a mayor, but to send repre-
sentatives to the Witenagemot. It may seem strange
now that either statement should ever have been seriously
treated. Reeves Barnstaple no doubt did have before the
Conquest, but certainly not mayors, and probably few will
be found now to endorse Lord Lyttelton's opinion that
Barnstaple was a representative borough of pre-Norman
times, or even share in Turner's more cautious reference
to the claim, as being entitled to considerable weight in
determining the question of the representation of cities
and burghs in the Witenagemot. It is a fact, however,
that 500 years ago Barnstaple did claim JESelstan as the
author of its representative rights ; and the borough
returned members without intermission from twenty-third
Edward I. to fatal 1885.

Notable traces of an early guild at Barnstaple have
been discovered among the municipal records by Mr.
J. R. Chanter. They consist of three rolls setting forth
the names of the officers and members respectively in
1303, 1318, and 1329, and a few ancient deeds and frag-
ments of accounts. The guild was that of St. Nicholas,
but it is also spoken of as ' the Guild of the Liberty of the
Borough of Barnstaple ;' and its customs are declared to
have been used and observed beyond memory of man.
Moreover, its connection with the government of the town
was most intimate, and the mayor was evidently its chief.
At the same time it was not the corporate authority, for
its members were scattered over the county ; and after it
was dissolved in 1549, the municipality acquired ' the site
of the late Chapel of St. Nicholas, now a building called
the Kay Hall,' by purchase. The Kay Hall, destroyed in
1852, was for centuries the ' common market,' and was in
part of Norman architecture. The data are so few that it
is difficult to decide what the precise object of this guild

I2O History of Devonshire.

might be. The lists are not those of freemen, but of a
distinct community. There seems also good evidence that
it was not a mere trading guild, certainly not such a guild
of sailors or seafaring men as the name might indicate ;
and it is clear also that it was not purely religious. More-
over, Mr. Chanter concludes (though the mayor exercised
some authority) that comparatively few of the townsmen
were members. This is shown both by the occurrence of
the names of many who are specified as resident else-
where, and by a comparison of the roll of the guildry
with legal and other proceedings of the same period in
the borough courts. The guild, indeed, chiefly consisted
of the petty gentry, yeomen, and agriculturists of the
neighbourhood, with a sprinkling of persons of higher
rank, and from a distance.

The Priory of St. Mary at Pilton was reputedly founded
by ^Eftelstan ; and the ancient seal of the brotherhood bears
testimony to the fact that no less an origin was claimed
five centuries since. Actual records do not go beyond
1200. The seal bears on the obverse the figure of the
Virgin Mary, to whom the Priory was dedicated ; and on
the reverse that of a king, evidently intended for ^ESelstan,
for the legend runs : ' HOC . ATHELSTANUS . AGO . QUOD .
PRESENS . SIGNA . IMAGO.' It was a Benedictine house of
small size, a cell to the great Abbey of Malmesbury, to
which it gave a couple of abbots. It had an uneventful
career, and at the Dissolution contained only three
monks beside the prior, while its revenues amounted to
but £56 I2s. 8d.

Pilton, really an ancient suburb of Barnstaple, was,
like it, largely engaged in textile manufactures, and had a
' shoddy ' reputation in consequence of its make of coarse
' cottons ' for linings. ' Woe unto ye Piltonians,' quotes
Westcote, ' who make cloth without wool !'

Barnstaple bore its part in the maritime activity of the
Elizabethan days, and contributed, as we shall see here-

Barnstaple. 121

after under Bideford, to the fleet fitted out against the
Armada. Like nearly all the towns of Devon, it had
strong Parliamentary sympathies, and a contingent thence
took part in the defeat of Hopton at Modbury. It was,
however, taken by Maurice in September, 1643. In the
following July the townsfolk overpowered the garrison ;
and, with the aid of a contingent sent by the Earl of
Essex, repulsed a party of Royalists despatched by Maurice
to turn the scale. But the Roundheads did not hold it
long, for in September, 1644, it had to yield to Goring,
and then remained a Royal garrison until the close of the
war, when Fairfax took it in April, 1646. There are still
extant, specially at Fort Hill, a few lines of the defence
and works of attack ; and Puritan cannonading is said to
have partially destroyed Pilton Tower.

Barnstaple was one of the western towns in which
Huguenot refugees settled after the revocation of the
Edict of Naitfes. Quite dramatic is the account of their
arrival and reception. The party left Rochelle in a small
crowded vessel, and had a very tempestuous passage. At
length they found themselves in Barnstaple Bay one
Sunday morning, sailed over the bar and up the river, and
landed on the quay during divine service. Utterly desti-
tute, they ranged themselves in the market-place, and
thither flocked the townsfolk when they left the churches.
Happily, neither the good Samaritan nor his spirit was
wanting. An old gentleman, whose name unfortunately
is not preserved, took a couple of the refugees home to
dinner, and recommended his example to his fellow-
townsmen. In a few minutes the Huguenots were dis-
tributed throughout the town, their immediate wants
supplied, and the foundation laid of a new period of com-
mercial prosperity for the hospitable borough. Intelligent
and industrious, and specially skilled in the woollen trade,
these poor French folk proved well able to repay their
benefactors. The Corporation gave them the Chapel of

122 History of Devonshire.

St. Anne as a place of worship ; and there French services
continued to be performed until 1761, when the immigrants
had become absorbed in the general population. Their
descendants can still, however, be traced here, as at
Exeter and Plymouth and Stonehouse, in the last of which
towns a French congregation continued to meet until the
present century.

This Chapel of St. Anne has for more than three cen-
turies been used as a grammar school, the original foun-
dation being presumably connected with the Guild of St.
Nicholas. Barnstaple school has a long list of illustrious
alumni. Bishop Jewell and his rival Harding; Jonathan
Hamner, one of the most famous of the ejected divines of
Devon ; John Gay, the poet ; Brancker, the Rosicrucian ;
Judge Doddridge ; and the learned Dr. Musgrave — among
the number.

Barnstaple is the seat of an important art pottery.
Excellent pottery of what is commonly regarded as Roman
type was made in Devon so far back as the Roman period ;
and some of the best clays of the county were then known
and worked. Mr. Phillips, of Aller, believes that much
that is commonly called Durobrivian .ware is really of
Devonshire manufacture ; and that some of the so-called
Samian found in the district, made on the wheel, is un-
questionably of Devonshire make and clay. In the Middle
Ages large quantities of encaustic tiles were made in various
localities. The chief production appears to have been
in the Barnstaple and Bideford districts, where potteries
have been carried on, historically, from time immemorial.
A mode of sgraffito ornamentation long since originated
in North Devon, dated specimens existing over a century
and a half old ; and this has been developed recently with
great effect. The decoration consists of ' washes of white
clay, with incised patterns, and coloured glazes of flowing
and pulsating lines.' The occurrence of beds of culm or
anthracite in the Carboniferous rocks of the district may,

Barnstaple.

by the provision of fuel, have stimulated the utilization of
the clay.

Until the assertion was questioned by the late Dr.
Oliver, Bishops Tawton, next Barnstaple, was commonly
accepted as having been the primary seat of the See of
Devonshire. It is now abundantly clear that Dr. Oliver
was justified in his scepticism, for later research has
shown that the belief rested entirely upon a statement
made by Hoker, of Exeter, in his catalogue and memoirs
of the Bishops of Devon down to 1583. Therein he states
that ' Werstanus was the first who fixed the episcopal .
chair at Bishops Tawton,' in the year 905. No earlier
writer than H oker assigns a bishop to Bishops Tawton ;
such later writers as do, all follow Hoker ; and, while no
evidence confirmatory of this statement has anywhere
been found, the difficulties in the way of its acceptance
seem upon critical examination to be insuperable. There
is, however, no reason to doubt, to quote the words of
Dr. Oliver, that 'the manor of Bishops Tawton, with its
members, Landkey and Swymbridge, formed a part of the
original endowment of the see,' and was then regarded as
its most profitable estate. ' Here the bishops occasionally
resided, as they did at Clyst, in Farringdon parish ; at
Radway, in Bishops Teignton ; at Place, in Chudleigh ;
and Paignton.' Some small remains of the ancient palace
still continue.

The ancient manor was long since divided, though the
bishops retained their residence down to the fifteenth
century. The first important severance took place in
1225, when the church and rectory, with Landkey and
Swymbridge, and the ecclesiastical manor, were appro-
priated as an endowment to the deanery by Bishop
Brewer. The principal part of the manor was, however,
conveyed by Bishop Veysey to the Russell family. By
ancient practice the rectory was always granted to laymen,
on freehold leases for three lives, the rector, as lord farmer,

124 History of Devonshire.

receiving all the tithes, exercising all the manorial rights,
and granting leases on lives by copy of court roll.
Originally, the lord farmer also appointed the incum-
bents of the three parishes.

A hamlet on the verge of Bishops Tawton, now a part
of the borough of Barnstaple, was anciently the indepen-
dent borough of Newport. The date of its foundation is
uncertain, but the name shows it to be of later origin than
the old ' port ' of Barnstaple ; and it may have been fos-
tered by the bishops, and grown up under their protection.
That it came to be called Newport Episcopi is but the
natural result of the connection with Bishops Tawton
parish. A market and fair were granted in 1294, and,
either then or not long subsequently it had a corporate
existence, for it is distinctly named the borough of
Newport in 1307, and the names of mayors are
recorded nearly as far back. Mayors were elected,
indeed, but rather in form than fact, until the last
ce,ntury.

The distinguished natives of Barnstaple have been
claimed to include Lord Chancellor Fortescue, author of
' De Laudibus Legum Angliae,' who was, however, born,
as already stated, in North Huish ; Lord Audley (d. 1386),
the foremost hero of Poictiers, who was certainly the
owner of the barony in right of his mother, coheiress
of the Martyns, and resided at the castle ; Sir John
Doddridge, Judge of the King's Bench under James I. ;
and John Gay, the fabulist. There is some doubt even
as to Doddridge, who has been credited to South Molton.
But Barnstaple was certainly his home ; and when he
died in 1628 at the age of seventy-three, his nephew suc-
ceeded to his property, and lived in the old town. Gay
(1688-1732) has been attributed to the adjoining parish
of Landkey ; but there is no doubt that his parents were
Barnstaple folk, and very little that he was born at their
residence in Joy Street. An old armchair, sold many

Barnstaple. 125

years since in Barnstaple, was found to contain a drawer
with a number of unpublished poems by him.

Ralegh, Bishop of Winchester, 1244, was born at
Ralegh, in the parish of Pilton, the original seat of this
famous family. From the Raleghs it eventually passed
to the Chichesters, another notable Devonshire house, of
South Devon origin, but now chiefly settled in the North,
at Arlington, Hall, and Youlston. A Chichester was
Bishop of Exeter in 1128; but the most distinguished of
the race was Arthur Chichester (d. 1620), born at Ralegh,
knighted by Henri Quatre for his ' notable exploits ' in
arms, and created by James I., whom he served as Lord
Deputy of Ireland, Baron Belfast.

Akland, in Landkey, near Barnstaple, is the first seat
of the Acland family, and has been held by them from
the twelfth century. Westcote gives a bad name to the
ladies of a village nigh, called Newlands, who, if annoyed
by the repetition of the phrase, ' Camp le tout, Newland,:
would treat their aspersors so unsavourily, that ' he that
travels that way a fortnight afterwards may smell what
has been there done.'

Tawstock used, in the common talk of the country-
side, to be regarded as having the finest manor, the
richest rectory, and the most stately residence — at any
rate in North Devon. If there is likelihood in the theory
that the ' stocks ' in a debatable land preceded the ' tuns/
then Tawstock may represent, as distinct from the Keltic
town of Barnstaple, the first Saxon settlement of the
Taw. However, we cannot trace it further than ' Domes-
day,' where it appears as one of the manors held by the
King in succession to ' Harold the Earl,' and a place of
note, having 18 serfs, 60 villeins, and 7 swineherds, with
5 houses in Exeter, and being worth £24 a year. William
Lord Briwere held it in the reign of Henry II., and gave
it to his daughter on her marriage with Robert, Earl of

126 History of Devonshire.

Leicester. She, having no children, gave it to her niece
Matilda, wife of Henry de Tracy. Thence it went in
succession to the noble families of Martyn, Audley, and
Fitzwarren, and through the Hankfords to the Bourchiers,
Earls of Bath, now represented in the female line by its
present possessors, the Bourchier Wreys. The fine old
mansion of the Bourchiers, nearly all burnt in 1787, had
been garrisoned during the Civil Wars. The park remains
one of the oldest and finest in the county. The church
has several monuments of the Bourchiers ; and an oaken
effigy, presumably a memorial of Thomasin, daughter of
Sir W. Hankford, is of an unusual character.

Adjoining Tawstock is the ancient borough of Freming-
ton, which sent burgesses to Parliament under Edward III.,
but has little other claim to notice. Like Tawstock, it
had belonged to Harold, but was given by William to the
Bishop of Coutances, who likewise had 7 houses and lands
and 10 burgesses in Barnstaple itself. The population
of Fremington was even greater than that of Tawstock
— 7 serfs, 40 villeins, 30 bordars, 13 swineherds, and
I burgess in Barnstaple — but it was worth £2 less. This
also was one of the manors that came to the Tracys,
and, forming part of the barony of Barnstaple, passed
through the Martyns to the Audleys. Coming to the
Crown, it was granted by Richard II. to John Holland,
Earl of Huntingdon, and was likewise one of the western
manors granted to Margaret, Countess of Richmond.

Across the Taw lies Braunton, presumably derived
from Brannock's ' tun,' Brannock being the patron saint ;
and the legend of the foundation of the church averring
that he was directed to build it where he next saw a sow
and her litter, in witness whereof sow and farrows are to
be seen duly carven on a boss. Legend further affirms
that he obtained the timber from a forest which then
grew upon the site of the sandy waste fringing the Taw,

Barnstaple. 127

now known as Braunton Burrows, and drew it to the
spot by deer. And it would be a remarkable coincidence
— if the remains had not suggested the tradition — that
a submerged forest does exist in Barnstaple Bay near the
point indicated, and that cervine bones and antlers have
been found therein. On the cliffs at Croyde, hard by,
flint chips are so numerous as to indicate the existence
there of a prehistoric implement-manufactory. Braunton
also figures in ' Domesday ' as a populous manor in the
demesne of the King ; and, indeed, the character of the
entries generally for this locality indicate a more thriving
condition than that of the county as a whole. By a grant
of Coeur de Lion, Braunton became the original Devon-
shire seat of the Carews, but was taken from them by
John in favour of Robert de Seckville; while Henry III.
gave two-thirds of the manor, with the lordship of the
hundred, to the Abbey of Cleve, in Somerset. At the
Dissolution, it was granted to the Earl of Westmoreland ;
and it was part of the property brought to the Courtenays
by the marriage of Sir William Courtenay to the daughter
of Sir William Waller and the heiress of the Reynells.
The custom of the manor is noted by the Lysonses,
following Chappie, as peculiar — some of the lands being
held by the tenure of Borough English; while others
passed to the elder son, and all were equally divided
between daughters.

Heanton Punchardon preserves the name of a dis-
tinguished family, of whom the most prominent member,
Sir Richard, served with great note in France under
Edward III. Through Beaumonts the manor came to
the Bassets ; and Colonel Arthur Basset, born at Heanton
Court in 1597, was one of the leading Royalists of
Devon, and Governor of St. Michael's Mount when it
surrendered to Colonel Hammond in 1646.

CHAPTER XV.

ILFRACOMBE AND LYNTON.

ILFRACOMBE, a little port of great antiquity, has developed,
within the last quarter of a century, into a watering-place
so thriving that it seems to have no history and to be all
but bran-new. But the town is old enough to have some
dozen names, varying from ^Elfringcombe, through Ilford-
combe, to the modern title ; and to have been a harbour
of some repute in the twelfth century, for the Welsh and
the Irish traffic. In 1344 it was important enough to be
cited to send representatives to a Shipping Council, while
to the siege of Calais it contributed six ships to Liverpool's
one ! Perhaps the best evidence of its standing in the
early Middle Ages is the quaint little chapel of St. Nicholas
on the peaked hill overlooking the quays, still, as it pro-
bably always has been, the harbour lighthouse. There
are many of these little half-sacred, half-secular cliff light-
chapels along the southern and western coasts; but, so far
as Devon is concerned, this alone retains its ancient uses.
Moreover, it was a place of pilgrimage in the fifteenth
century; and, though now sadly modernized, still has
features of interest.

Like every western port, Ilfracombe was the scene of
great activity during the Elizabethan era ; and, though it
does not occupy a prominent place in the annals of that
time, evidently profited by the operations against the

Ilfracombe. 129

Spaniards ; and seems, by a few casual references, to
have kept up a regular traffic with the southern coast of
Ireland. Whenever war was onward Ilfracombe was
ready to do her share of privateering, or, to use the term
most in local favour, to engage in ' reprisals.'

The town was of little consequence in the Civil Wars of
the Commonwealth ; though, like most of the Devonshire
centres, it had Puritan sympathies. It was captured by
Sir F. Doddington for the King in September, 1644, and
held by the Royalists until it fell into the hands of Fairfax,
soon after his capture of Barnstaple, in 1646. The isolated
position of Ilfracombe caused it to be selected as a refuge
by some of those who took part in the Penruddock rising in
1655. They were, however, taken; and history repeated itself
when in 1688 a party of refugees from Sedgmoor, headed by
Colonel Wade, seized and victualled a vessel at Ilfracombe
and put to sea, but were forced ashore by a couple of frigates.

The most curious incident in the later history of Ilfra-
combe is the fact that it was the intended scene of a
French invasion in 1797. On the 2Oth of February in
that year four French vessels came to an anchor to the
west of the port, and scuttled a few coasting craft. But
they made no attempt to land, for the North Devon
Volunteers manned the heights ; and the Frenchmen set
sail for Wales. Here they disembarked 1,400 soldiers,
but surrendered without firing a shot to the militia under
Lord Cawdor, who is said to have dressed his miners in
their wives' red petticoats and frightened the invaders by
the demonstration of superior force. Be that as it may,
there is hardly a seaport in Devon which has not some
tradition of invaders being scared by a muster of old
women in red cloaks.

The Champernownes were once lords of a part of
Ilfracombe (held by Baldwin the Sheriff in 1086), and
obtained a grant of a market and fair in 1278; and among
their successors were the Bonviles, Nevilles, Greys, and

y

130 History of Devonshire.

Gorges. Sir Philip Sydney, too, was one of its owners.
This manor is now dismembered. Another, of which the
harbour forms part, was a member of the barony of
Barnstaple, passed from the Audleys to the Bourchiers,
and has thence descended to the present owner, Sir H.
Bourchier Wrey. By the Bourchiers and the Wreys the
harbour-works have been several times improved and
extended. The shipping trade of Ilfracombe is now,
however, little more than local; and the modern im-
portance of the town rests entirely upon its attractions as
a watering-place, which have been developed with equal
good taste and spirit. The healthiness of the site has,
indeed, passed into a proverb : ' You may live in 'Combe
as long as you like, but you must go somewhere else to
die !' But there is a parish churchyard for all that.

Considering the antiquity of Ilfracombe, its personal
relations are singularly scant. Its one notable is John
Cutcliffe, whose name was Latinized into Johannes de
Rupecissa, a reforming friar of the fourteenth century.
He was born at Damage Farm in 1340, and died in
prison at Avignon, where he had been cast for his opinions.
He was a man of great earnestness and learning, but the
influence of his labours and writings, as a contemporary
of Wyclif, were chiefly confined to the Continent.

A far better known divine, John Jewel (1522-1571), the
famous Bishop of Salisbury, was born at Bowden Farm
in the adjoining parish of Berry Narbor, in an old house
among the hills still standing. His ' Sermons/ in black-
letter, may yet be seen chained up as of yore in some
of the churches of the West. His stoutest opponent,
Thomas Harding (died 1572), was born in the next
parish of Combe Martin, and was Jewel's schoolfellow at
Barnstaple Grammar School.

Sir William Herle, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
1316, certainly lived at Chambercombe, near Ilfracombe,
but his birth there is doubtful.

Combe Martin. 131

Of Berry Narbor there is little more to say. Originally
named after some old earthwork, ' burh ' or • ' bury,' it
gave name in its turn to the family of Berry, from whom
it passed to the Narberts or Narbors. Monuments of
both families are in the old church ; and hard by, fallen
sadly from its high estate, is the old manor-house. Stow-
ford in West Downe, and not Stowford in Berry, is the
seat of the Stowfords of whom came Sir John de Stowford,
Justice of the Common Pleas in 1343.

Combe Martin has a more formidable history. ' Mile-
long man stye,' as Kingsley called it, some antiquaries
have seen in the little harbour wherewith the long Combe
Valley terminates, a haunt of the Phoenician galleys.
This is the purest speculation ; but it must have been of
some little note when it took its distinctive surname from
the Martins of Tours, its Norman lords, to one of whom,
Nicholas Fitz Martin, market and fair were granted in
1264 ; and its first importance seems to have been derived,
not from its facilities for commerce, but its mineral
wealth.

There is a vague tradition, for which Westcote appears
to be responsible, that Combe Martin was a borough and
sent representatives to Parliament ; but the assertion is
wholly unfounded. Its mines of silver lead, with those
of Bere Alston, were unusually productive in the reigns
of the first Edwards, the silver raised being turned to
account in the prosecution of war with France. They
were worked also under Henry V., and were then of little
account until the days of Elizabeth. Adrian Gilbert, half
brother of Sir Walter Ralegh, who had considerable skill
in mining matters, led the way in the new venture ; but
Sir Bevis Bulmer carried forward the work, and with
much success. He gave a cup of Combe Martin silver to
the City of London — still among the Corporation plate —
the cup and cover weighing 137 ounces ; and another to

9—2

132 History of Devonshire.

the Earl of Bath (the manor of Combe Martin having
then passed to the Bourchiers). Each bore a quaint
inscription ; but a portion of that on the City cup will
suffice as a sample :

' Dispersed I in earth did lye

Since alle beginninge olde
In place called Combe, where Martin long

Had hid mee in his molde.
I dydd no service on the earth,

And no manne sate mee free,
Till Bulmer by his skill and charge

Did frame mee this to be.'

Another attempt was made under Charles I. so late
as the year 1648, but without much being done, though
the project had his personal encouragement. In modern
times the old mines have been worked and new ones
opened, without any satisfactory result. Yet the ore is
rich, yielding 140 and 150 ounces of silver to the ton.

Not fifty years since Combe Martin supplied a curious
survival of history in a quaint custom of Ascension Day,
called the ' Hunting of the Earl of Rone.' This part of
Devon had a noted exceptional intercourse with Ireland
through the Middle Ages, and, according to tradition, an
Irish refugee, known as the Earl of Tyrone, was captured
here by a body of soldiers in a place called Lady's Wood.
This was the matter commemorated, with the addition
of a few details of still older May-day mumming; if indeed
the ' Earl of Rone ' had not been grafted upon the more
ancient ceremonial, and given it a new lease of life. The
chief characters were the Earl of Rone, with mask and
smock, and a chain of biscuits round his neck ; the hobby-
horse of the elder time, a decorated donkey ; a fool ; and a
troop of grotesquely dressed grenadiers. The prelimi-
naries lasted a week, which was devoted to processions ;
then the Earl was captured in Lady's Wood, led in mock
triumph, shot at intervals, lamented by hobby-horse and

Lynton. 133

fool ; and the process repeated while contributions could
be levied.

Lynton is the chief centre of a corner of Devon next
Somerset, enclosed on one hand by the high land of
Exmoor proper, and on the other by a spur which follows
down to the sea to the east of Combe Martin from Bratton
Down. To this comparative isolation is it due that the
district retains much of its original old-world characteris-
tics ; and that it has had so casual a share in the general
history of the county. This was not always so, and there
is abundant evidence, in ' camps ' and barrows and other
memorials of antiquity, that the neighbourhood was well
populated in Keltic times ; and the next parish to Lynton,
that of Countisbury, is clearly the ' bury or camp of the
headland,' Cant-ys-bury, akin to Kinterbury, near Plymouth,
and the Canterbury of Kent.

The Valley of Rocks, the most romantic feature of
Lynton, with its grotesque piles of weathered stone and
mimic natural masonry, has been held to indicate selection
for the performance of druidical rites — a freak of pure
fancy on the part of the elder antiquaries, without a
vestige of evidence in its favour. Far more reasonable is
the suggestion that Lynton was the scene of ancient raids
and incursions on the coast by the Severn Sea, especially
when Harold ravaged that district in 1052. This remote cor-
ner of Devon, too — probably from the natural strength of its
position, belted by hills — appears to have formed a kind
of refuge for the Saxons after the Conquest, for it is stated
that William himself expelled the natives therefrom. The
manors of Lynton, Crinton, and Countisbury all passed to
William Chievre, and Lynton and Countisbury eventually
came to the Tracys, and by them were given to Ford
Abbey. After the Dissolution they passed to the family
of Wichchalse, who are said to have been Protestant
refugees of Dutch origin. The name occurs, however,

134 History of Devonshire.

in the records of St. Petrock, Exeter, at a date much
earlier than that commonly assigned for their immi-
gration.

Old Lynton — or rather Lynmouth, but the two are really
one — was, in the main, a fishing port, with a bias towards
smuggling. Westcote tells a story against the ' parson ' of
Lynton, how that when the herrings first resorted to the
coast he ' vexed the poor fishermen for extraordinary
unusual tithes.' The sympathetic herrings ' suddenly
clean left the coast,' but — possibly on the ' parson ' mend-
ing his way — ' God be thanked, they began to resort hither
again.' In the valley of Badgeworthy, or Badgery, on
Exmoor, there are yet traces of the huts of the Doones,
the last gang of professional banditti of a residential
character in England. Their characters are strongly
painted in ' Lorna Doone,' which is full of the local
legends that have lingered long beyond their usual date
in this quiet spot ; now, under the name of ' the English
Switzerland,' the increasing resort of the tourist tribe.

Occasionally used by both parties during the Civil War,
Lynmouth was the final refuge of Major Wade, when,
after his escape from Sedgmoor, he had to leave Ilfra-
combe ; and he was captured in hiding at Farleigh, in
Brendon. Lydcote Hall, on the flank of Bratton Down,
has been assumed by many writers, following Sir Walter
Scott, as the birthplace of the ill-fated Amy Robsart:
this, however, is an error.

The little parish of Morthoe, which borders Morte Bay,
on the other side of Ilfracombe, has a niche alike in
history and in folk-lore. A tomb in Morthoe Church to
' Syr Wiliame de Tracey ' was recorded by the elder his-
torians as that of the Tracy murderer of A Becket.
Risdon is confident upon the point ; and Westcote jokes
upon the assumption that some ill-affected persons stole
the leaden sheets in which Sir William's body was

Morthoe. 135

wrapped, leaving him 'in danger of taking cold.' But
Morthoe is an old Tracy seat, and a chantry in this verj
church was founded by a rector of Morthoe, William
Tracy, who was undoubtedly buried here. This, coupled
with the fact that the figure on the tombstone is that of a
priest, and the frequent use in the Middle Ages of the pre-
fix * Sir ' to indicate a parish clergyman, renders it probable
that the whole of the tomb belongs to the rector, as a part
admittedly does. According to West-Country tradition,
after the murder of the Archbishop,

' The Tracys
Had the wind in their faces '

wherever they went, or from whatever quarter it might
blow ; and, assuredly, high and rugged Morthoe was as
likely a place as any to secure a remarkable fulfilment.
Morthoe is * High Morte,' and Mort is fancifully inter-
preted to mean ' death.' Beyond Morte Point is Morte
Stone, the cause of many a shipwreck, which will be
removed when it is taken in hand by a husband who can
say from experience that the grey mare is not the better
horse. There is, indeed, a version of the tradition which
places the power in the hands of a number of wives who
have the sovereignty, but adds sagely that enough have
not been got together to produce the result. And Mort-
hoe itself supplies material for yet another wise saw in
the declaration that it is the place which * God made last,
and the devil will take first ;' which may be matched in
Northumberland at Elsdon, and probably in many other
rugged neighbourhoods.

CHAPTER XVI.

LUNDY ISLAND.

LUNDY ISLAND has afforded ample proof of its settlement
in far-back antiquity. Here in 1850 were found a couple
of huge stone kists lying side by side, the larger of which
contained an extended skeleton 8 feet 2 inches in length,
while the other held the bones of a body which was
several inches above the average height. Seven other
skeletons of ordinary size, without coffins, were found in
the same line ; and then a burial-pit, containing a mass of
bones of men, women, and children, with pottery,
fragments of bronze, and beads. These remains belonged
to two distinct periods — the ' giants' graves,' as they are
locally called, dating from the Stone age. Another relic
of the distant past was discovered in the following year
—a huge earth-covered cromlech, the table-stone weigh-
ing about five tons. There are also traces of ancient
cultivation, which show the presence, many centuries
since, of a comparatively large population.

So much for the prehistoric days of this singular islet.
It does not appear to have definitely found its way upon
the historical record until the twelfth century, when it
was the stronghold of Jordan de Marisco, who had
married Agnes, daughter of Hamelin Plantagenet, natural
brother of Henry II. His turbulence led to the forfeiture
of Lundy, and its grant to the Knights Templars ; but

Lundy Island. 137

the family remained in possession notwithstanding, for
in 1199 Jordan's son, William, followed in his father's
steps, and forfeiture in favour of the Templars was then
declared by John. Again was it found that to forfeit
was one thing, and to seize another. Feeling secure in
his island strength, Sir William defied alike Templars and
King, levied contributions on the adjacent coast, and
finally had to be besieged — a special hidage rate being
levied in Devon and Cornwall to raise the funds. Whether
he was even then ejected is by no means certain ; for
little conclusion can be drawn from the appointment by
the Crown of keepers of Lundy; and it is known that
the Templars never entered into possession.

Sir William, however, must have found it desirable to
make an alliance with France, for he was among the
prisoners taken by the English in the naval battle of
August 24, 1217. He was speedily forgiven, and three
months later Lundy was restored. The next Lord of
Lundy, Jordan, or Geoffrey, de Marisco, was slain while
engaged in a raid at Kilkenny in 1234 > and his son
William, having set on an assassin to murder Henry III.
at Woodstock, was taken by stratagem, and hung,
drawn, and quartered, while sixteen of his associates
were dragged at the cart's-tail, and hanged. Thus for a
time the Mariscos were at length effectually dispossessed.
Bearing a noble name, and claiming to be men of high
degree, they were really among the most pestilent piratical
rascalry that ever fulfilled the sad words of the old
chronicler, by filling their castles with ' devils and evil
men.' There are several traces of their sway in the
remains of their castle and other buildings ; and it has
been suggested that from this period date certain round
towers, the foundations of which have considerable
resemblance to those of Ireland.

Lundy was now in the possession of the Crown ; and,
as it was the common resort of the King's enemies, was

138 History of Devonshire.

placed in charge of a succession of governors, among
whom were Henry de Tracy, Robert de Walerond,
Ralph de Wyllyngton, Humphry de Bohun, and Geoffrey
Dinant. Forty years had barely elapsed, however, before
(1281) the Mariscos were back again. Next we find
John de Wyllyngton keeping Lundy from Herbert de
Marisco by force of arms ; and the Mariscos were finally
dispossessed in 1321 by the grant of the island, with the
other estates of De Wyllyngton, to the King's favourite,
Hugh, Lord le Despencer. This led in 1326 to the
selection of Lundy by Edward II. as a place of refuge.
But the winds were contrary, and the King had to land
in Wales. With the fall of Le Despencer, and the
accession of Edward III., Lundy again returned to the
Crown, and was put in the keeping of Otho de Bodrigan.
Subsequently it got back to the Wyllyngtons, and was
sold by them to the Montacutes, Earls of Salisbury. In
1390, Lundy was held of the King in chief by Guy, Lord
Bryan, and it descended from him through the Butlers,
Earls of Wiltshire and Ormond, to the St. Legers of
Annery ; thence passing, by the marriage of Mary St.
Leger with the gallant Sir Richard Grenville, to the
Grenvilles. From the Grenvilles it went to the Leveson-
Gowers ; but was sold by the executors of the first Earl
Gower, and since then has passed through several hands.
It seems impossible to obtain a complete account of the
holders and owners of the island ; but, amidst much
uncertainty, its importance in the Middle Ages is pretty
plainly indicated by the number of prominent names
associated with it.

The most romantic part of the history of Lundy
extends through the seventeenth century. In the opening
years of the reign of James I. it gradually grew into
favour as a haunt of pirates, and had for ' king ' one
Captain Salkeld. He must have been expelled, if it be
true that * Judas' Stukely made it the place of his

Lundy Island. 139

retreat ; but in 1625 the island seems to have fallen into
the hands of a Turkish squadron, and thenceforward for
many years it was nothing if not piratical. In 1632 it
was reported the headquarters of a buccaneer named
Admiral Nutt, who required for his repression a fleet of
some dozen vessels. But in the next year the island
itself was plundered by a Spanish vessel ; and it is some-
what doubtful how far the native inhabitants of Lundy,
and of the adjacent coasts of the mainland, were clear
from all participation in this special form of 'free
trade/

At the commencement of the Civil War, Lundy was
garrisoned for the King by one Thomas Bushell, who was
engaged in working the silver-lead mines of Combe
Martin, and who fortified it at his own cost. But it saw
no service ; and having been acquired by Lord Saye and
Sele, that nobleman, in February, 1646, called for its
surrender. Bushell, not complying, was summoned by
Sir Thomas Fairfax; but even then he declined to give
way until he had laid the case before the King, and
obtained his consent. Hence it was not until February
24th, 1647, that Lundy was given up to Colonel Richard
Fiennes, and handed over to Lord Saye and Sele. There
is a local tradition that his lordship died there, and was
buried beneath the west window of the Chapel of St.
Helen.

Under the Commonwealth the sea was too closely
kept to allow of Lundy resuming its evil reputation ; but
with the Restoration the Lundy piracies cropped up
again. In 1663 the island was actually held by French
privateers ; and so again in the reign of Queen Anne, to
the serious damage of the colonial trade of Barnstaple
and Bideford. There is no truth, however, in the story
told by Grose of the capture of the island by a French
vessel, the crew of whom gained an unopposed access by
the pretence that they wished to bury their captain.

140 History of Devonshire.

The last noteworthy thing about Lundy is its connection
with a certain Thomas Benson, the descendant of a
respectable merchant family of Bideford, and at one
time member for Barnstaple. Having entered into a
contract for the exportation of convicts to Virginia or
Maryland in 1747, in 1748 he obtained a lease of the
island from Lord Gower, and thereupon made that his
convict station, employing his unhappy slaves in his
improvements. Lundy or Virginia mattered not in his
view, so that they were out of the kingdom. Benson
was every way a great rascal. A smuggler, not far removed
from a pirate, he had at length to fly the kingdom for
an abominable fraud upon insurance offices, removing
the insured cargoes of vessels, and then scuttling the
ships.

Since Benson's time, Lundy has had no national con-
cern, save the erection of a lighthouse on its highest
point by the Trinity Board in 1819. It has, however, at
various times been made the residence of its owners.
Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, who bought it of the
executors of the first Earl Gower, continued there until
the outbreak of the American War ; and the late pro-
prietor, Mr. Heaven, lived there up to the time of his
death for nearly fifty years. The only attempt made to
develop a trade at Lundy was the working of granite
quarries, which he encouraged, but which did not prove
successful. These quarries must, however, have been
worked in former times, as the Lundy granite is largely
used in many of the churches on the north coast of
Devon and Cornwall.

CHAPTER XVII.

BIDEFORD.

BIDEFORD is generally interpreted to mean ' by the ford,'
and in name, at any rate, is therefore Saxon. The
* ford,' however, is of far older date, being that by which
the old British trackway, subsequently no doubt used by
the Romans, crossed the Torridge. Bideford was a place
of some importance when it belonged to Brictric, its last
Saxon owner; for at the Domesday Survey, when, like
most of the other manors of that unlucky thane, it passed
to Matilda, it had an enumerated population of 52, while,
as it then had a fishery worth 255. a year, the germs of
its maritime character already existed. The manor is
remarkable for having remained for nearly seven centuries
in one family. After Matilda died, William gave it to
Richard Grenville ; and by the Grenvilles it continued to
be held until 1750. The first Grenville of Bideford was a
cousin of the Conqueror, and in his way a conqueror him-
self; for he effected the reduction of Glamorganshire in
the reign of Rufus. The Grenvilles occupy a distinguished
position in English history ; but the two most famous
bearers of the name are the Grenville of Elizabeth and
the Grenville of Charles. Most famous of all is the
former, the Sir Richard Grenville (1540-1591) of whom
Kingsley writes, one of the brightest stars in the
Elizabethan naval galaxy, who closed a noble life in the

142 History of Devonshire.

stoutest sea-fight ever waged. Ralegh has told the story
in noble prose, and Tennyson in heroic verse. Alone and
unaided in his ship the Revenge, with but 103 men and
many of them sick, he fought off Flores, in 1591, the
whole Spanish fleet of 52 sail and 10,000 men, from three
o'clock in the afternoon until daybreak the following
morning, repulsing fifteen attacks of the enemy, who
brought up two fresh vessels each time, sinking four of
their ships, and killing 1,000 of their men. The Revenge,
meantime, was shattered into a mere hulk, 800 cannon-
shot piercing her through and through, killing 40 of her
crew, and wounding nearly all the rest, Grenville among
the number. When the sun rose on the scene of carnage,
the Revenge, shattered and broken as she was, her decks
streaming with blood, a veritable shambles, lay in the
centre of a ring of baffled Spanish men-of-war, who dared
come no nearer. Want of ammunition, not of pluck,
compelled the crew to surrender, though Grenville himself
wished the vessel to be blown up. Three days afterwards,
Grenville died of his wounds, with a joyful and quiet
mind ; ' for that I have ended my life as a true soldier
ought to do, that hath fought for his country, Queen,
religion, and honour.' The Revenge was staunch to the
last. After the battle she was filled with the Spanish
wounded, and despatched for Spain ; but a storm sprang
up, and she was never heard of more, sinking with all
hands.

Sir Bevil Grenville (1596-1643), whom Kingsley calls
the ' handsomest and most gallant of his generation ' — a
Cavalier in whom lived the truest spirit of ancient
chivalry — gained lasting fame for himself as one of the
four great Royalist leaders of the West — the ' four wheels
of Charles's wain.' Winning the day for his King at
Lansdowne fight, he lost his life in the winning ; and for
a while the name of Grenville was dishonoured by the
atrocities of his brother Richard, one of the most

Bideford. 1 43

rapacious and unscrupulous of the Cavalier generak, as
Bevil was the noblest.

It may fairly be assumed that it was to the Grenvilles,
and notably to Sir Richard, that Bideford owed the rapid
development of her maritime importance in the latter
years of the sixteenth century. Sir Richard was con-
cerned with Sir Walter Ralegh, his cousin, in the ex-
peditions to colonize Virginia ; and was General of the
fleet which, in 1585, settled Roanoake. In the following
year he was setting out again from Barnstaple to the
relief of the infant colony, when his vessels were beneaped
on the bar. The delay thus caused led the colonists to
despair of relief, and to return home in a barque given
them by Sir Francis Drake. This accident was, there-
fore, the direct cause of the breaking up of the first
English settlement in America ; and of the loss of fifteen
North Devon men, whom Grenville left behind at
Roanoake when his second voyage was made, and who
were never heard of after, save that the Indians had
vague tidings to tell of death and disaster.

It was with a fleet destined for the same service that
North Devon participated in the fight with the Armada.
Grenville had prepared an expedition for the relief of the
colony planted by Ralegh in 1587, apparently consisting
of three vessels, which was only waiting for a fair wind to
put to sea, when the news came of the speedy advent of
the Armada, and ' most of the ships of warre then in a
readines in any hauen in England were stayed for seruice
at home.' According to the contemporary Diary of
Philip Wyot, town clerk of Barnstaple, five ships went
over Barnstaple Bar to join Sir Francis Drake at Ply-
mouth ; but, while it has been held that three at least
were furnished by Barnstaple, Bideford — in consequence
of a statement in ' Westward Ho !' not, however, historical
—has been credited with seven. Mr. R. W. Cotton, after
an exhaustive analysis of all the evidence, is of opinion

144 History of Devonshire.

that the North Devon Armada fleet consisted of these five
vessels only. The names of four have been preserved —
the Galeon Dudley, God save her, and Tyger, entered as
Barnstaple vessels, but probably forming Grenville's con-
tingent ; and the John, a Barnstaple vessel proper. The
other was also in all likelihood a Barnstaple craft, possibly
one of six ' reprisal ships ' which are recorded as having
belonged to that town.

That Bideford was the headquarters of the Ralegh-
Grenville expedition, and so the chief contributor to the
little squadron, there is every reason to believe ; but Mr.
Cotton has shown that eight years after the defeat of the
Armada it was only assessed at one-fifth as much as
Barnstaple, and that of itself it could by no means have
supplied all the seamen needed. Bideford, therefore, was
not one of the chief ports of England in the sixteenth
century, as Kingsley states, though it bore a chief part in
the Armada fight so far as North Devon is concerned.
It was then, in fact, simply in the dawn of its prosperity ;
and had only been incorporated under Elizabeth.

When the commerce of the town began to rise, its
extension was very rapid. The merchants of the port
were quick to grasp the advantage of the traffic with
America and Newfoundland ; and this trade continued to
extend until the commencement of the last century, when
the export shipping to Newfoundland was exceeded by
only two ports in the kingdom — London and Topsham ;
and the import trade by London only. Great was the
harvest reaped in these days by the French and Spanish
privateers, who preyed upon the ships of Bideford and
Barnstaple to such an extent that the offing of the Taw
and Torridge was named by them the ' Golden Bay.'
But the American trade survived until the American war.
For some years more tobacco was imported into Bideford
than into London. These palmy days have long since
flown ; Barnstaple has once more recovered its superior

Bideford. 145

position ; and the shipping trade of the Torridge is
mostly conducted, not at Bideford, but at Appledore.

Bideford, like Barnstaple, has a famous bridge. In
fact, in Devonshire it is the bridge of bridges, and every
true Bideford man feels a pride in the old structure,
though he may not have seen it for half a century, and
solicitously inquires for its welfare. Its origin is super
natural ; its history romantic ; and its demeanour philan-
thropic. It is quite uncertain when it was built, the early
records having been destroyed ; but, as the oldest seal of
the borough in existence, of fourteenth-century date, has
the bridge for device, so old at least must Bideford Bridge
be. According to tradition, no foundation could be laid
until Sir Richard Gornard, or Gurney, the parish priest,
dreamt that a rock had been rolled to the site to serve for
that purpose, and, going there in the morning, found his
dream accomplished ; whereupon the work was soon com-
pleted. The seal to which reference has been made
indicates the existence of buildings in association with
the bridge that have long disappeared. A structure
with a bell turret is on one side of the bridge, a church
with a spire on the other, and the centre bears the Virgin
and Child on a Maltese cross raised on a shaft. The
bridge is wealthy ; and the feoffees, in whose care it is,
have been enabled from time to time to improve it
materially, and to expend a handsome surplus in education
and charity. Under the old regime the bridge was rather
noted for its hospitality, being addicted to the giving of
good dinners ; but these days have fled before the presence
of the Charity Commissioners.

Bideford, like Barnstaple, threw in its lot with the
Parliament at the outbreak of the Wars of the Common-
wealth, with more energy than staying-power. With their
neighbours from Barnstaple, the Bideford band joined the
rendezvous of the Devonshire Roundheads at Modbury in
1642, and took part in Sir Ralph Hopton's defeat.

10

146 History of Devonshire.

This success inspired a confidence which led to their
downfall. Colonel Digby held Torrington with a strong
body of Cavaliers to keep the North Devon Parliamen-
tarians in check. In August, 1643, he was assailed by the
united forces of Bideford and Barnstaple, but their van-
guard of musketeers, being suddenly charged by the
colonel and a handful of his officers, were driven back upon
the main body. Panic-stricken, they all fled, and were
pursued by the Royalist cavalry until, as Clarendon
states, ' their swords were blunted with slaughter, and
their numbers overburdened with prisoners.' Those who
escaped had lost their wits as well as the day ; for when
they reached Bideford they declared that no one had seen
more than five or six of the enemy. Behind their walls
and within their forts, however, they regained their courage,
and, aided by Barnstaple, sustained a month's siege from
Digby. They must then have stood to their guns well,
for they did not surrender until they had promise of pardon,
and guarantees of safety of person and property. Re-
mains of the old fortifications still exist, East-the- Water.

Shebbeare, the author of ' Chrysal,' was a Bideford
man ; and here was first developed the genius of Edward
Capern, the Devonshire Burns and postman poet, who is,
however, a native of Tiverton.

Bideford is connected with the last execution for witch-
craft in the West of England — the last but one in ths
kingdom. In 1682 there lived here ' three old women,
ugly, poor, and discontented ' — Temperance Lloyd,
Susannah Edwards, Mary Trembles. Lloyd was a
reputed witch, and the fact that she fell upon her knees
in the street and thanked God for the recovery from
illness of a certain Mistress Thomas seemed ground
enough, when Thomas got worse again, to excite suspicion
that Lloyd was the moving cause. Taxed with the witch-
craft, she confessed. She confessed, moreover, that the
devil attended her in the shape of a magpie, of a ' braget

Bideford. 147

cat,' of a hobgoblin ; and that she had killed by her
witcheries four persons, whom she named. Hints let
drop by her next led to the apprehension of Susannah
Edwards and Mary Trembles. They, too, gave full con-
fession. When Susannah Edwards made the acquaintance
.of the devil, he was ' like a gentleman.' Trembles was
not so favoured. The devil had appeared to her ' like a
Lyon.' The full text of these confessions is still extant,
and is equally absurd and revolting. But the trio were
convicted on their own testimony ; and these three poor
women, either mad or weary of life — described by an
eye-witness as 'the most old, decrepid, despicable,
miserable creatures that he ever saw'— were hanged at
Heavitree, near Exeter, on the 25th of August, within
two months of their apprehension. There were other
trials for witchcraft in Devon and Cornwall in 1695-6 ;
but though these ended in acquittal, it was not until 1716
that the last executions for this impossible offence took
place, when a woman and her daughter were hanged at
Huntingdon for selling their souls to the devil. It is an
unpleasant commentary upon this that the belief in
witchcraft is still widely prevalent in the rural districts of
Devon, and leads to the cremation of multitudes of
miserable toads, who are looked upon as the emissaries of
the Evil One. However, if there are ' black witches ' to
do mischief, there are several ' white witches ' who, for a
consideration, will baulk their projects.

Northam is said to have been the scene of the landing
of the Danes in 878 ; of their siege of Kenwith Castle,
and of their repulse with great slaughter, the defeat of
their chief, Hubba, and the capture of the Raven
standard. Few identifications have been more disputed ;
yet the existence of the 'Hubbastow,' Hubba's traditional
place of burial, and the assignment of the ' Bloody Corner '
as the Danes' last stand, is evidence that cannot lightly

10 — 2

148 History of Devonshire.

be gainsaid. The manor had some importance so far
back as ' Domesday,' when it belonged to St. Stephen, of
Caen, in succession to Brictric ; for it had then an
enumerated population of 36, with two salt-works and a
fishery. In 1252 it was confirmed as part of the posses-
sions of the Priory of Frampton, in Dorset, a cell to St.
Stephen ; and when the possessions of the alien houses
were seized, was given to the College of St. Mary Ottery.
Ottery, in its turn, fell ; and Elizabeth granted the manor
to the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, so that it has
almost continuously been under ecclesiastical lords.

The little town of Appledore had its rise in the early
days of the Newfoundland fisheries, and developed a
shipping trade of some importance. Appledore has been
treated as Keltic, * A-pwl-dwr,' the ' water-pool ;' but it
is really the Saxon ' Appletree.' Of late a new town has
sprung up at the mouth of the Torridge, created and
named by Kingsley's * Westward Ko !' This faces the sea
on the verge of the wide expanse of sandy dunes called
Northam Burrows, which is defended against the en-
croachments of the waves by the natural breakwater 01
Carboniferous pebbles, known as the * Pebble Ridge.'
Rights over the Burrows are exercised by the potwallopers,
or householders, of Northarn ; and it is one of the few
spots in England where the game of golf has been
thoroughly naturalized.

On the opposite side of the river is Instow, really
Johns-stow, and thus called in * Domesday. '

Borough, in Northam, made ever famous by Kingsley
in its association with his Sir Amyas Leigh, was the
seat of a family of the same name, which produced
at least two very eminent Devonshire seamen — Steven
and William Borough. Steven Borough, though little
known, is entitled to a very honourable place in the list
of Devon worthies. Born in 1525, he was master of the
largest vessel, the Edward Bonaventure, in Sir Hugh

Bideford. 149

Willoughby's luckless voyage to the Arctic Seas, planned
by Cabot, and which would have been an utter failure
had not Borough and his comrade, Richard Chancellor,
the pilot-major of the fleet, determined to prosecute their
voyage after they had been separated from Willoughby by
a storm. Keeping northward until they found no night
at all, naming the North Cape on their way, they sailed
into the White Sea — the first vessel that had ever entered
its wide waste of waters — thus, as it was afterwards said
in all earnestness, ' discovering ' Russia. Chancellor
proceeded to Moscow, there obtained important trading
privileges, and laid the foundations of the important
Muscovy Company. In 1556, Borough went again to
the Northern Seas in a pinnace, to carry forward the
intentions of the original expedition, and to find a way
by the north-east to Cathay. He made the most re-
markable voyage in the annals of Arctic exploration.
The little vessel drew only four feet of water. She had
for crew only the brothers Borough and eight others ;
yet she entered the Kara Sea, and reached a point beyond
which no navigator went until our own days — English,
Dutch, and Russian failing each in turn. Borough made
sundry other voyages, and won such reputation that, in
January, 1563, he was appointed by Elizabeth Chief Pilot
of England, and one of the four Masters of the Navy.
For twenty years he toiled in official harness, and he was
buried in Chatham Church in 1584. William Borough,
also a seaman of distinction, wrote a treatise on the
magnet, and became Comptroller of the Navy.

Horwood, for many years the chief residence of the
Pollards, .of whom one notable monument still remains
in the church — a fifteenth-century effigy of a lady, with
three children in the folds of her robe — claims mention
historically from the fact that a shoe nailed on the church
door was reputed to have been placed there by Michael
Joseph, the Cornish blacksmith, who headed the in-

150 History of Devonshire.

surrection of 1497, and marched through Horwood on
the way to his defeat at Blackheath.

Abbotsham was anciently part of the estates of the
Abbey of Tavistock, whence its name ; but early in the
seventeenth century belonged to the Coffin family, who
have been seated at Portledge, in the adjoining parish of
Alwington, almost from the time of the Conquest, and
who continued there in the male line until the death of
Richard Coffin in 1766. The family has produced many
men of note, Sir William Coffin, Master of the Horse
at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, and a prominent
participator in the Field of the Cloth of Gold, being of the
number. He is said to have been a leading cause of the
reform of mortuary fees by threatening to bury a priest —
who had declined to read the service over the body of a
poor man in Bideford churchyard until he had received
the dead man's cow in payment — in the grave which had
been prepared. The disturbance thus created — for Sir
William proceeded to actual business — led to inquiry
and regulation. The present branch of the family bear
the name of Pine-Coffin. The Coffins spread also into
the adjoining parish of Parkham.

Buckland Brewer has name from the Briweres ; and,
by the gift of William Lord Briwere, formed part of the
endowments of the Abbeys of Dunkeswell and Torre.

On the hill above the quaint little port of Clovelly, the
most ' upright ' village in its structural relations in Eng-
land, are the gigantic earthworks of Clovelly Dikes. Not
only are they the finest in Devon, but they are fairly com-
parable with the remains of such ancient cities as Old Sarurn
or the Dorchester Maiden Castle. It is certain that
here was the capital of a powerful tribe. No remains in
Devon more strongly emphasize the common error of
calling all earthworks ' camps,' and treating them as relics
of active warfare. Nevertheless the ' Dikes ' are a master-

Bideford. 1 5 1

piece of ancient defensive skill, and must have required
the long-continued labours of even a numerous population.
There are three complete circumvallations, the ramparts
ranging from 15 to 25 feet in height, with outworks or
fragmentary cinctures.

Visibly connecting the Dikes with ' cliff-cleft' Clovelly,
are the remains of an ancient paved road, which has been
cited in proof of presumed Roman origin. It may very
well have been that the Romans used this landing-place,
seeing that traces of a Roman villa have been found in
Hartland parish adjoining, and that the coast here was
skirted by one of the old trackways ; but there is nothing
about Clovelly Roman in its character ; and thpugh the
name has been ingeniously derived from Clausa Vallis,
the * hidden glen,' there does not seem to be any reason
to regard it as being anything but Saxon — the ' cliff-place '
— Cleaveleigh. The little town is really a sharp notch in
the cliff range, with a steep step road, lined with houses
on each side, running down to a beach and pier. There
is every appearance of considerable antiquity in this.

Clovelly, indeed, finds a place in ' Domesday ' as one of
the manors that passed from Brictric to Matilda, and had
then an enumerated population of 37, so that it has fully
maintained its relative importance. At a very early date
it was in the hands of the Giffards ; but in the reign of
Richard II. came to the Carys, who continued to hold it
until this branch of that distinguished family died out in
1724. One of the chief members of the Clovelly Carys
was Sir John, Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1387, who
died in banishment at Waterford. His son John was, it
is said, nominated Bishop of Exeter in 1419 by the Pope
while in Italy, but only lived six weeks afterwards, and was
never installed. George Cary, Dean of Exeter (1644-1680),
is recorded in his epitaph to have twice refused a bishopric.
The church is said to have been made collegiate by Sir
William Cary in 1387.

152 History of Devonshire.

Clovelly, for centuries a fishing village, has acquired
reputation as a seaside resort.

Hartland, or Harton, is the westernmost town in Devon,
and the extensive parish in which it lies occupies nearly
the whole of the north-west angle of the county. Hartland
Point is named by Ptolemy after Hercules; and the
Romans left unmistakable traces of their presence
in this remote corner. In Saxon times it was evidently a
county centre of considerable importance, for the popu-
lation recorded in ' Domesday ' exceeds that of any other
Northern manor — 30 serfs, 60 villeins, and 45 bordars.
Moreover, it was worth £48 a year. The name in * Domes-
day ' is Hertitone, agreeing with the modern Harton, but
the form Hartland is probably of as great antiquity, since
the affix 'land' is constantly employed in the Devon
Survey as signifying a district of a promontorial character,
somewhat akin in usage to the Kornu- Keltic Ian.

The last Saxon holder of the manor was Gytha, mother
of Harold, and by her was founded what afterwards be-
came Hartland Abbey, for canons secular, in gratitude, it
is said, for the preservation of her husband, Earl Godwin,
from shipwreck. Her foundation was dedicated to St.
Nectan, the patron saint of the parish church of Stoke St.
Nectan, reputedly buried here. The abbey was refounded
for Augustine canons by Geoffrey de Dynham, or Dinant,
in the reign of Henry II., and by him re-endowed. It
had benefactors also in the Tracys, Peverells, and
Boterells, and Richard I. gave it the right of gallows. At
the Dissolution its revenues were valued at £306 33. 4d.

It was to Oliver de Dinant that the market was granted
to ' Harton borough ' in 1280. The Dinants held Hart-
land until the last male of the name, created Lord Dinham
by Edward IV. in 1466, died without issue, and his estates
passed through his sisters to the families of Carew, Arun-
dell, Fitzwarine, and Zouch. There is some little con-

Bideford. 153

fusion as to the further descent of the various manors ;
but the Abbey, in the basement of which there remain
portions of the Early English cloisters, belongs to Sir
George Stucley, who represents, in the female line, the
Stukelys of Afton, several members of whom figure pro-
minently in Devonshire history. Thomas Stukely under-
took the plantation of Florida, but turned to something
like piracy instead, and died at Alcazar in Africa, fighting
side by side with Sebastian of Portugal, in 1578. He it
was who told Elizabeth that he would rather be the
sovereign of a molehill than the highest subject to the
greatest king in Christendom. It was Sir Lewis Stukely,
afterwards named 'Judas,' who arrested Ralegh on his
return from his last voyage ; and in later days Puritanism
and the Parliament had few more earnest advocates in
word and deed than another Lewis Stukely, the Indepen-
dent minister of Exeter.

A more striking illustration of the comparative isolation
of Hartland in the sixteenth century can hardly be afforded
than the fact that it was evidently overlooked by the com-
missioners of Edward and Elizabeth in their visitations
for the reform of religion. The church of Stoke St.
Nectan is not only one of singular architectural merit,
especially for so remote a situation, but it contains its
screen in perfect preservation, and, what is far more note-
worthy, its stone altar standing in its original place.

There are stated to have been anciently eleven chapels in
this extensive parish. The parish documents are unusually
numerous and interesting, and have been reported on by
the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Dr. Moreman,
born at Hartland in 1529, vicar of Menheniot, is reputed
to have been the first who used the English language in
public worship in Cornwall — teaching his parishioners the
Creed, Commandments, and Lord's Prayer in that tongue.

CHAPTER XVIII.

GREAT TORRINGTON.

WHAT is now Great Torrington was of old Cheping
( = Market) Torrington. There are several Torringtons
entered in ' Domesday,' and the need of distinction was
early felt. Now we have Great Torrington, Little Torring-
ton close by, and Black Torrington some miles higher
up the river. Of these the only one that has a history is
the first. Gytha held lands in one of the Torringtons, but
probably not the ' great ' manor of that name. Under the
Normans Great Torrington became the head of an honour
containing twenty-nine knights' fees, which were eventually
divided among the five daughters of Matthew de Tor-
rington, married respectively to Merton, Wallis, Tracy,
Sully, and Umfraville. This seriously complicates the
descent of the barony and manor. In 1228, however, the
Castle of Torrington belonged to Henry de Tracy, and
the Sheriff of Devon was directed to cause it to be thrown
down. A return to a writ of inquiry under Edward I.
shows Thomas de Merton possessed of two parts, Walter
de Sully of one part, John Umfraville of one part, and
Galfride de Kamville, by the death of Henry de Tracy, of
one part. The names of De Brian, St. John, and Cary
afterwards come into the succession, and when John
de Cary was attainted 2 Henry IV. his estates passed to
Robert Chalons. The castle was rebuilt in 1340 by

Great Torrington. 155

Robert de Merton. Little more than the name of Castle
Hill continues. It was at Torrington the Sessions were
held in 1484, at which the Marquis of Dorset, Sir Edward
Courtenay, Bishop Peter Courtenay, and 500 other noble-
men and gentlemen, were outlawed for treason against
Richard III. ; while Sir Thomas St. Leger, who had
married Richard's sister, and Thomas Rayme, were found
guilty of high treason, and beheaded at Exeter. Margaret
of Richmond was one of the chief residents of Torrington,
and gave her manor-house as a residence for the vicar.
Torrington no doubt was Lancastrian. Torrington has
had two illustrious vicars. Cardinal Wolsey, who held the
incumbency until his promotion to the See of Lincoln in
1514, and gave the church to his new foundation of Christ
Church, Oxford. And John Howe, chaplain to the Pro-
tector, who was ejected in 1662.

The church figures prominently in the one event which
links Torrington with the later history of the kingdom.
The town was held for the King by Sir John Digby in
August, 1643, when the Bideford and Barnstaple men
made their unsuccessful assault, and in the hands of the
Royalists it chiefly remained. In February, 1646, it was
the headquarters of Lord Hopton, who had been making
preparations for the relief of Exeter. Fairfax soon advanced
against him, marching from Crediton to Chulmleigh on
the I4th, and mustering all his forces at Ashreigney on
the i6th. Although he had an army of 9,500 men, Hopton
was unaware of his approach until attack was imminent ;
and the preparations for defence were necessarily of a
hurried character. Nevertheless, the advance of the
Parliamentary troops was so obstructed by skirmishing
behind the hedges and by blocking the roads with trees,
that, although they left Ashreigney at seven in the morning,
it was eight in the evening before Torrington was reached,
Stevenstone House having been taken on the way. Even
then, although Hopton had no more than 5,000 troops,

156 History of Devonshire.

his position might almost have been deemed impregnable.
Standing upon a hill among hills, all but girdled with
deep valleys, the place is one of great natural strength ;
and Hopton had made good disposition of his forces.
Fairfax was content with what had been already done for
the day, and prepared for an assault in the morning.
About midnight, however, as he and Cromwell were going
their rounds, they heard sounds that led them to imagine
the enemy were in retreat. To test the point a small
body of dragoons was ordered to approach the first
barricade and fire over. They met with such a warm
reception that others had to be sent to their relief; and
then the reserve, thinking that an attack had been com-
menced, came running up without waiting for orders.
An assault in force was now inevitable ; and, after an
hour's desperate fighting, the place was won. Hopton
himself was wounded and barely escaped. The Royalist
losses were very heavy. More than 600 prisoners were
taken ; and, though Fairfax did little in the way of
pursuit, there was another sharp conflict at Hembury
Fort, near Buckland Brewer, where the Cavaliers took
refuge within the earthworks of the ancient camp.

The capture of Torrington was the real end to the war
in the West. It was signalized, moreover, by a great
catastrophe. The Royalists had converted the church
into a powder-magazine. The Roundheads, ignorant of
this, drove into it 200 of their prisoners. Whether by
accident or by design the powder was fired, and the
church blew up, killing prisoners, guards, and townsfolk,
and destroying scores of houses. Fairfax nearly fell a
victim ; but it was noted as an evidence of miraculous
interposition with the ' hellish plot ' — a ' mira non mirabilia '
— that ' though the Books of Common Prayer were blowne
up or burnt, the blessed Bible was preserved and not
obliterated, although it were blowne away.' Hugh Peters
preached a thanksgiving sermon for the capture in the

Great Torrington. 157

market-place, and a more formal thanksgiving was ap-
pointed by the Parliament. In addition to the prisoners,
3,000 stand of arms and the whole of the baggage and
money of the Royal army were taken.

The inhabitants of Great Torrington have extensive
and peculiar rights over the common lands adjoining their
town, which are said by Risdon to date from the time of
Richard I. The documentary history extends to the reign
of Elizabeth. Over the unenclosed commons of 370 acres
' all occupiers of ancient messuages,' locally called * pot-
boilers,' claim the right to common of pasture without
stint. Over another 163 acres of ' common fields ' similar
rights are claimed, subject to a right of tillage in the
owner of the fee. The ancient custom was to remove the
gates of these fields annually after harvest, and stock
the land with cattle from the adjacent open commons until
the customary time for the next year's tillage. In 1835
this plan was modified by an agreement on the part of the
occupiers to pay, and the commoners to receive, ' quiet
possession rents,' in consideration of which the fields are
allowed to be cultivated in any way thought proper. Still
more recently fresh disputes have arisen between the
commoners and the lord of the manor, the Hon. Mark
Rolle.

Considering the antiquity and early importance of
Torrington, and the large number of important families
resident in the neighbourhood, it may seem somewhat
singular that Torrington should not have had a more
prominent place in the national life. Two causes probably,
however, contributed to this — one, the fact that notwith-
standing its antiquity and trade, it lay in an isolated part
of the country, outside the run of ordinary traffic; the
other, its successful endeavour in 1368 to rid itself of the
burden of sending burgesses to Parliament, on the score
of its poverty. It was represented 23rd Edward I. to
45th Edward III. The present incorporation of the town

158 History of Devonshire.

as a municipality dates from Mary; but the seal of
' Chipyngtoriton ' is certainly of older date. The market
is held by prescription, and possibly has a Saxon origin.
The town was largely engaged in the woollen manufacture ;
it is now chiefly occupied in gloving, of which it is a very
important centre.

Frithelstock, an adjoining parish to Great Torrington,
held by Ordulf before the Conquest, then passing to the
Earl of Moreton, is chiefly noteworthy here as having
been the site of a small priory of Austin canons, founded,
1220, by Sir Roger de Beaucharnp. Portions of the
original Early English structure are still standing. The
Priory was settled by monks from Hartland, and the
two houses were always so far connected that the prior
of each had a voice in the election of the head of the
other. The revenues at the Dissolution were valued at
£ 127 2S. ojd. ; and the estate was granted by Henry VII.
to Arthur, Viscount Lisle, afterwards passing into the
family of Rolle, and descending to the Earl of Orford
and Lord Clinton. The advowson of Ashwater was
given by Richard de Braylegh, temp. Edward III., to the
prior and convent of Frithelstock for certain charities.

Monkleigh was given to the Priory of Montacute in
Somerset by its founder, William, Earl Moreton, in the
reign of Henry I., and after the Dissolution passed to the
family of Coffin. Here is the ancient seat and park of
Annery, once the home of the Stapledons, then by
marriage of the Hankfords. This was the residence of
Sir William Hankford, born at Hankford, in Bulkworthy,
and created in 1413 Lord Chief Justice of the King's
Bench ; the judge who traditionally disputes with
Gascoigne and Hody the credit of having committed
Henry V., as Prince of Wales, to prison for striking him
a blow on the Bench. Another tradition, probably of
equal authority, is connected with Hankford alone.

Great Torrington. 159

Having returned to Annery, and being weary of his life,
he accused his park-keeper of want of care in the pre-
servation of his deer, and ordered him to shoot anyone
whom he might meet in his rounds at night, and who did
not answer upon being challenged. Having so provided,
he himself walked in the park, met his keeper, refused to
reply to the challenge, and, as he hoped and intended,
was shot by a quarrel from the keeper's cross-bow. A
tree is still pointed out as that under which Hankford
was standing at the time ; and there is yet a little dread
in the country-side of meeting the ghost of the Lord
Chief Justice. All the ancient accounts of the transac-
tion differ so materially that speculation seems almost
idle. Hankford was, however, buried at Monkleigh,
where his mutilated monument remains. His descendants
married into the families of Fitzwarine, St. Leger, and
Bourchier, Grenville, Stukely, and Tremayne. Anne
Bullen was granddaughter of Anne, daughter and heiress
of Sir Richard Hankford, thus enabling the county to
claim Queen Elizabeth as in part of Devonshire kindred.

Wear Giffard has already been mentioned as one of
the seats of the once wide-spread and powerful family of
Giffard, and later of the Fortescues, whose manor-house
has one of the noblest halls of its period still left, the
roof being reckoned among the finest examples of
Perpendicular woodwork in England.

Then we have, on the east of Torrington, the extensive
parish of St. Giles-in-the-Wood, so called to distinguish
it from St. Giles-in-the-Heath, which lies on the borders
of Cornwall, and which contains the manor of Cary,
reputedly the original home of the Cary family. The
church of St. Giles was originally a chapel to Torrington.
Stevenstone here, now the property of the Hon. Mark
Rolle, in the time of Henry II. belonged to Richard St.
Michael, thence passing to Basset, De la Ley, Grant, and
Moyle; and finally, in the reign of Henry VIII., being

160 History of Devonshire.

bought by George Rolle, an eminent London merchant.
Way passed from the Ways to the Pollards and Wylling-
tons. Winscott from the Barrys came to Risdon, the
chorographer (1580-1640), now represented by Sir Stafford
Northcote, and is the seat of Mr. J. C. Moore-Stevens, a
descendant of one of the wealthy townsfolk and bene-
factors of Torrington, William Stevens. There are also
Dodescot, which belonged to the Howards ; and Whits-
leigh, held by Dynants, Durants, Kellaways, Drakes, and
Woollacombes.

The parish of Merton is celebrated as containing the
manor of Potheridge, the home for many descents of the
family of Monk, made illustrious in their descendant,
the famous General. There is some little confusion as to
the exact place of Monk's birth (1608), arising from the
fact that he was baptized, not at Merton, but at Land-
cross, a parish some miles distant, adjoining Bideford.
Hence he has been variously regarded as being born at
Potheridge and at Landcross. However, Potheridge
was both the seat of his family and became his own
chief residence. The mansion was rebuilt by him for
that purpose ; but in greater part was destroyed after the
death of the widow of his son Christopher, the second
and last duke, in 1734. Monk was one of those men, so
characteristic of the period in which he lived, who were
equally at home at sea or on land ; and his first service
was marine. Afterwards he saw much active duty in
Scotland and Ireland, originally as a partizan of Charles I.;
but subsequently in command of the Roundhead forces
under Cromwell. In Ireland he dispersed the forces of
O'Neale ; and in Scotland he quenched the hopes of the
Royalists by the capture of Edinburgh and Stirling
Castles. Then he became ' general at sea,' and defeated
the Dutch in two great engagements ; after which, for a
while, he took up his residence at Dalkeith. Here he
was living when Cromwell died ; and hence he marched

Great Torrington. 161

into England with a small army, and took the leadership
of affairs, and the direction of the movement which led to
the restoration of Charles II. The King was grateful.
Monk was made Captain-General, Baron Potheridge,
Earl of Torrington, and Duke of Albemarle. Thence-
forward, until his death in 1670, he held the foremost
position in the kingdom in all matters connected with the
national defence. His last service of importance was the
defeat of the Dutch in conjunction with Prince Rupert.

Concerning Merton itself, it may be noted that at the
Conquest it passed to Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances,
having been held by Torquil. The ' Domesday ' entry
gives it all the characteristics of a wild woodland manor ;
for to a population of 23 serfs, villeins, and bordars, it
had no fewer than 9 swineherds. A much smaller manor
of the same name was held by Richard, under Baldwin
the Sheriff. Baldwin was likewise the lord of Porridge,
in which we may in all probability identify Pctheridge.
This had been the land of Ulf, and was held under
Baldwin by Alberic. There seems to have been some
connection between Potheridge and Merton, possibly
derived from ancient common ownership, as the rector
of Merton was entitled to a dinner every Sunday and
the keep of his grey mare out of the barton of Potheridge,
which eventually was commuted for a modus of £3 per
annum. At least, so say the Lysonses, following Chappie.
Merton, which was for a while in the Stawells (following
the Mertons) and the Rolles, passed to the Trefusises,
Barons Clinton.

ii

CHAPTER XIX.

HOLSWORTHY AND HATHERLEIGH.

THERE is no more uninteresting part of Devon historically
than the corner next the Cornish border, of which the
chief centres are Holsworthy and Hatherleigh ; and yet it
is precisely here that almost the only trace of Roman
influence on the nomenclature of Devon, outside Exeter, is
to be found. Near North Lew — a bleak upland parish,
where, according to the local proverb, ' the devil died of the
cold ' — are Chester Moor, Scobchester, and Wickchester ;
and it does not seem possible to evade the conclusion that
these names mark the localities of Roman castra, and
point to some sort of Roman, perhaps frontier, occupation.
Hatherleigh formed part of the original endowment of
Tavistock Abbey, and appears in ' Domesday ' under the
name of Adrelie. The entry has some interesting features.
The Abbey held in demesne 6 serfs, 26 villeins, and 6
coscets ; and there were 4 tenants under the abbey —
Nigel, Walter, Geoffrey, and Ralph, who had 4 serfs, 12
villeins, 4 bordars, and 5 coscets. Geoffrey, moreover,
had a mill upon his lands. This tenancy — itself continu-
ing in all likelihood older divisions — probably originated
the subsequent manorial apportionments of the parish.
After the Dissolution the chief manor, Hatherleigh proper,
passed to the Arscotts. Hatherleigh Moor, the manor
waste, belongs to the inhabitants, and it is the common

Holswortky and Hatherleigh. 163

belief among them that this comes of the gift of John of
Gaunt, who executed the conveyance in the rhyme :

1 I, John of Gaunt,
Do give and do grant
Hatherleigh Moor
To Hatherleigh poor
For evermore.'

And this is all that there is to be said of Hatherleigh,
beyond the fact that it gave birth to John Mayne, dramatist
and theologian (1604-72).

Holsworthy, the other town of the district, has a some-
what better claim to notice. The market is one of great
antiquity ; and the chief fair was recorded in the time of
Edward I. as having belonged to the ancestors of William
Martyn from time immemorial. Holsworthy was held for
the King in 1646, and occupied by Fairfax, after his
capture of Torrington ; but apparently without a contest.
Probably the Haldeword, which Harold held before the
Conquest and William afterwards, it had even then an
enumerated population of 75. There is evidence also
that it must have been of much greater importance in the
Middle Ages than it has been since, in the fact that it had
600 houseling people in 1547. The manor has been the
property of several distinguished families. Henry II.
gave it to Fulk Paganell, until he should be able to recover
his own lands in Normandy. Afterwards it came to the
Chaworths, thence to the Tracys, the Martyns, and
the Audleys. Then it reverted to the Crown, and was
held by royal grant in succession by John of Gaunt (and
this may have been the association that linked his name
with Hatherleigh tradition) John Holland, Duke of Exeter,
and Margaret, Countess of Richmond. For a while it
was in the Specotts and Prideauxes, and was sold by the
latter to Thomas Pitt, Lord Londonderry, from whom it
has descended to its present owner, Lord Stanhope. At
Thorne a family of that name were seated from the reign

II — 2

164 History of Devonshire.

of King John till the early part of the seventeenth century.
Here also is Arscott, which gave name to that ancient
house, later of Tetcctt. The ' church town ' of Holsworthy
is now a thriving agricultural centre.

Few of the adjoining parishes call for special mention.
Ashbury has been the seat of the Morth-Woollcombes
for some two centuries ; at Beaworthy a park was made
about 1366 by Sir Nigel Loring, one of the first Knights
of the Garter ; Abbots Bickington takes its distinctive
name from being given by Geoffrey de Dinant to Hart-
land Abbey ; Bradworthy Church was the gift of Lord
Briwere to the Abbey of Torre ; Bratton Clovelly disputes
with Bratton Fleming, and Bracton Court near Mine-
head in Somerset, the honour of being the birthplace of
Henry de Bracton, Chief Justiciary under Henry III., the
celebrated writer on the laws and customs of England —
' De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae ' (d. circa 1268) —
who lies buried in Exeter Cathedral ; Bridgerule is really
Bridge Raoul, from its Norman owner, Ruald Adobed ;
Broadwood Widger, named from the once prominent
family of that name, belonged subsequently to Frithelstock
Priory, while the manor of Mere Malherbe was given by Fitz
Stephen to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and by
its prior conveyed to the Abbey of Buckland in Somerset ;
Hollacombe, like Newton St. Petrock (the gift of ^ESelstan),
was the property of Bodmin Priory ; Honeychurch gave
name to a family which has ceased to be connected with
it, but has only recently, if yet, become extinct ; Iddes-
leigh was anciently the seat of the Sullys, the last of whom
was Sir John Sully, who served at Halidon, Cressy,
Poictiers, and in Spain, and at the reputed age of 105 (1387)
gave evidence at his residence in the Scrope and Gros-
venor controversy — he died soon after, and is said
to have been buried at Crediton, but a figure of a
Crusader at Iddesleigh is also assigned to him ; In-
wardleigh was an early settlement of the family of

Holsworthy and Hatherleigk. 165

Coffin ; Jacobstow, as Jacobescherche, is remarkable as
being not only one of the ' Devenescire ' manors which
did not change hands at the Conquest, but as belonging
to a Saxon lady, Alveva, and as being the seat of a Saxon
church ; Pancrasweek, which anciently belonged to the
Briweres, was given by William Lord Briwere to Torre
Abbey, and, like the next manor, recalls a dedication of
the British Church ; Petrockstow was part of the posses-
sions of the Abbey of Buckfast, mentioned as such in
* Domesday ' — the park of Heanton Satchville belongs to
Lord Clinton, whose seat is in the adjoining parish of
Huish, once possessed by the bearers of that ancient
name ; Shebbear was formerly in the Nevilles, and John
Alvethol held lands here by the service of holding the
King's stirrup whenever he should come into the lordship ;
Sheepwash, adjoining, was of old a market-town ; Tet-
cott was the last seat of the family of Arscott, who died
out in the male line in 1788, and were succeeded by the
Molesworths ; Werrington was the chief manor of the
Abbey of Tavistock.

Winkleigh has claims to a more detailed notice. In
the first place, the parish forms a hundred of itself ; and
in the second, it was part of the honour of Gloucester.
Before the Conquest, it was held by Brictric, who suc-
ceeded his father, Algar, in the Gloucester earldom ; and,
like other possessions of that unlucky Saxon, passed to
William's Queen. ' Domesday ' notes it an important
manor, with 40 ploughlands, and an enumerated popula-
tion of 76. Moreover, it contained the only park entered
for Devon. Upon Matilda's death, Rufus became the
lord ; and, shortly after his accession, gave the manor to
Robert Fitz Hamon. By the marriage of Fitz Hamon's
daughter, Mabel, to Robert Fitzroy, illegitimate son of
Henry L, the estates of the earldom of Gloucester passed
to him, and the title followed. Winkleigh was early
divided into the two manors of Winkleigh Keynes and

1 66 History of Devonshire.

Winkleigh Tracy, named from their respective owners.
The Earls of Gloucester still continued, however, to
retain some interest — at least, down to the fourteenth
century. Risdon speaks of the existence of two castles
here ; but there is no trace of either now, beyond a couple
of mounds, which may have been the foundations ; and
both manors were eventually for a time reunited in the
family of Lethbridge. It is quite possible that one of
those * castles ' may have been the mansion at Up
Holecombe, which Richard Inglish had the licence of
the King to castellate about 1361, especially as one of
the mounds above mentioned is very doubtful. And as
William de Portu Mortuo obtained a charter for a market
at Hollacombe village in 1260, the place must then have
been of some little consequence. Indeed, Winkleigh is
sometimes called a borough town. Southcote, another
estate in the parish, appears to have given name to the
Southcote family. Winkleigh Church was given to the
Abbey of Tewkesbury by one of the Fitzroys, and it had
a Guild of St. Nicholas. The Rev. Wm. Davey, who
died vicar of Winkleigh in 1826, is remarkable for having,
while curate of Lustleigh, written and printed with his
own hands a system of divinity in twenty-six volumes,
working fourteen copies only.

CHAPTER XX.

OKEHAMPTON.

INSIGNIFICANT as Okehampton has been for many a long
year, deriving its sole importance since the days of the
Stuarts from its position on the high-road into Cornwall,
and losing even that when the construction of the Great
Western Railway diverted the course of traffic, there are
few towns in Devon associated with more distinguished
names. It is signalized in * Domesday ' as the one manor
in Devon stated to possess a castle. Moreover, it had a
mill and a market ; and, in addition to 50 villeins, serfs,
and bordars, 4 burgesses. Though not one of the four
boroughs of the county, it had, therefore, a definitely
town-like character in the modern sense. How much of
this importance it enjoyed under its Saxon lord, Offers, is
doubtful ; for, though his timbered ' strength ' may have
been the nucleus, there is no ancient town in Devon that
seems more thoroughly the creation of its castle, the
only really defensible spot it possessed.

Baldwin the Sheriff, or Baldwin de Redvers (otherwise
De Sap, or De Brioniis), was the most important feudal
lord in Devon. No fewer than 181 manors fell to his
share in this county alone ; and from among them all he
selected * Ochementone ' (far more closely preserved in
the still current ' Ockington ' of the natives than in the
polite and utterly unetymological Okehampton) for his

1 68 History of Devonshire.

chief residence. Ninety-two fees were held of this barony.
Here in the centre of his domains, in the very heart of
Devon, commanding the passes to the north and west of
Dartmoor, and dominating the district far away to the
Severn Sea, he reared his castle. None of his masonry
remains ; but the site is that which he chose, the mound
is that which he scarped and isolated from the hillside,
of which it formed a rocky spur ; and the surroundings
have changed little from the day when the square Norman
keep first frowned upon the brawling waters of the rapid
Ockrnent in the valley below.

For a time the house of Redvers flourished. Not only
did they hold the chief barony of Devon in Okehampton,
not only were they hereditary castellans of Exeter, and
sheriffs of the county ; but Richard, son of Baldwin, by
his faithful adherence to Henry I., gained the town of
Tiverton, and the honour of Plympton. His son,
Baldwin, espoused the cause of Matilda, and was driven
from the kingdom, with the loss of all his great posses-
sions. Yet it was not long ere the De Redverses were
reinstated in their honours and estates ; and it was by
marriage with Mary, daughter of William de Verona,
sixth Redvers Earl, the coheiress of that great family,
that the historic house of Courtenay became not only
lords of Okehampton, but eventually obtained the
earldom of Devon they again so worthily enjoy. With
occasional intermissions of forfeiture, the Courtenays
held Okehampton, from the death of Isabella de Fortibus
in 1292, until the death of Edward Courtenay in 1556.

Robert de Courtenay is said to have made Okehampton
a free borough in the reign of Henry III. He can only,
however, have affirmed and extended pre-existing rights.
Representatives were sent to Parliament as early as
28th Edward I. ; but the town was not incorporated by
royal charter until 1623, and portreeve and mayor long
existed side by side, the custom being for the same

Okehampton. 169

burgess to be chosen to fill both offices. From 7th
Edward II. until 1640 the town ceased to elect members ;
then it resumed and continued until finally extinguished
in 1832. There are two corporate seals. One, pre-
sumably attached to the office of portreeve, bears for
device a triple towered castle ; the municipal seal has a
cornucopia, charged with an escutcheon, bearing the Red-
vers arms. A new corporation was chartered in 1885.

Brightley was the original seat of the Cistercians of
Ford Abbey, which they found it impossible to colonize
successfully.

The value of Okehampton as a strategic point entailed
many inconveniences and no little loss in the course of
the wars between Charles and the Parliament. Troops
of both parties occupied in turn, and it was never free
long together from the presence of one or the other.
Charles himself, Maurice, Essex, Goring, Richard
Grenville, Fairfax, and several minor commanders, held
possession at various times ; but it was never the scene
of actual conflict. The nearest fighting was a hotly
contested affair in May, 1643, between Chudleigh and
Hopton and Grenville, at Meldon, in Bridestowe,
memorable for being fought by night in a storm of wind
and rain. Chudleigh had somewhat the advantage ; but
the defeat of the Earl of Stamford followed too closely
to render the victory of any avail. Okehampton Castle
had been dismantled by Henry VIII., or in all probability
an effort would have been made to hold it. Okehampton
Park is still the name of the ancient demesne skirting
Dartmoor ; but it was disparked and alienated by
Henry VIII.

Bridestowe, the adjoining parish to the south-west, was
held at the time of the Domesday Survey by Ralph
de Pomeroy, ancestor of the great house of Pomeroy,
under Baldwin. The name is really a corruption of
Bridgetstowe, the church being dedicated to that saint,

170 History of Devonshire,

and thus marking the site of a pre-Norman foundation.
Sampford Courtenay, which lies to the north-east, has
been already noted as the place where the Western Re-
bellion for the restoration of Roman Catholicism had its
rise. It was a parcel of the barony of Okehampton.

North Tawton, a market-town of considerable antiquity
and of old time a borough, retained its portreeve as a
memorial of former importance, though the prefix has
long been dropped which gave it claim to rank with
Great Torrington as a Saxon market — Cheping or Chipping
Tawton. This may be taken as some guide to its identi-
fication in ' Domesday.' It was certainly held by William ;
but whether it was the Tavyetone which had 3 serfs,
31 villeins, and 33 bordars, or the Tavetone which had
belonged to Gytha, with its 12 serfs, 50 villeins, and
30 bordars, there is very little direct evidence. The
greater importance of the latter would indeed seem to
make it likely that this was North Tawton, and Tavyetone
South Tawton ; but though at first sight the former iden-
tification would appear almost certain from the fact that
while Tavetone is associated in ' Domesday ' with the
smaller manor of Ashe, there is still extant in North
Tawton the estate of Ashridge ; oddly enough, we find
that at South Tawton we have the alias of Eastash.

North Tawton was one of the possessions of the famous
family of Valletort, to whom a market-grant was made in
1270. It came by coheiresses to the Champernownes,
from whom it descended to the St. Legers and Woods
(or Atwoods) who lived at Ashridge several generations.

The barton of Bath is associated with a notable piece
of folk-lore. It was the name, place, and seat of the
family of Bath, De Bath, or Bathon— a house sometime
ot much note. Of this stock was Sir Henry Bath, Justice
Itinerant to Henry III., who was charged with corruption
in his office, and respecting whom Henry is said to have

Ok champion. 1 7 1

declared at his trial, ' Whosoever shall kill Henry de Bath
shall be quit of his death, and I do hereby acquit him.'
However, Bath was fortunate enough not only to be
taken into favour again, but to be made Chief Justice of
the King's Bench. He died in 1261. The point of folk-
lore raised is not unique, which makes it the more curious.
There is at Bath a large pit or excavation, which under
ordinary circumstances is perfectly dry, but becomes
filled with water, by an intermittent spring, before any
great national event or family calamity. This is said to
have occurred in recent days, immediately before the
death of the Duke of Wellington. As Bath is the Saxon
baeth, * water,' probably this phenomenon has continued
for many centuries, and gave name to the estate.

North Tawton is one of the very few centres of the
woollen manufacture which retains its trade. It possesses
a very large woollen factory which has always kept pace
with the times, and thus illustrates what might have been
done if masters and men had been everywhere equally
well advised to keep the ancient trade in the county.

The leading manor of South Tawton was once in the
Beaumonts, being granted by Henry I. to Roselm Beau-
mont, Viscount de Mayne, whose granddaughter brought
it to Roger de Tony. This family appear to have made
the village of South Zeal ( = Saxon, sell, a dwelling) the
borough which it is occasionally described as being, for
Robert de Tony had a grant of a market and fairs there
in 1298. Tantifer, Chiseldon, and Wadham are also
ancient names in connection with the descent of South
Tawton Manor.

A far more remarkable piece of Devonshire folk-lore
than that just noted is associated with this parish of
South Tawton — 'the Oxenham omen' — every fact in
relation to which has recently been collected with the
minutest care by Mr. R. W. Cotton. Oxenham here gave

172 History of Devonshire.

name to a family of repute, one of whose members was
John Oxenham, of Plymouth, the first Englishman who
sailed on the Pacific, a comrade of Drake at Nombre de
Dios, who eventually fell into the hands of the Spaniards
and was by them executed as a pirate — one of the bravest
and most unfortunate of the great seamen of Elizabethan
Devon. The ' omen ' consists in the appearance of a
' bird with a white breast,' or of a white bird, before the
deaths of members of the family. The earliest record of
this apparition refers to the year 1618 ; but in 1641 what
is now a rare pamphlet was published, detailing four
appearances before the deaths of four members of a
branch of the Oxenhams, settled at Zeal Monachorum, in
1635. The tradition continues in the family, where the
reality of the appearances is not doubted, though * no
decided conviction obtains as to their cause.' Recent
instances of the ' omen ' are quoted in connection, the
most remarkable of which was the appearance of a white
bird outside the windows of a house in Kensington a week
before the death of Mr. G. N. Oxenham, then head of the
family, in 1873. The bird refused for some minutes to be
driven away, and a sound like the fluttering of wings is
stated to have been heard in the bedroom. Probably this
belief in the white bird of the Oxenhams is associated in
some way with the wide-spread superstition that the flying
of birds around a house and tapping against the window,
or resting on the sill, portends death. Mr. Cotton inclines
to the belief that the solution of the problem may be
' physiological . . . and that heredity, of the force and
effects of which we have probably little conception, and
the marvellous instincts of animals, of which we know so
little, are the keys to it.' Zeal Monachorum, by the way,
takes its distinctive name from having been given by Cnut
to Buckfastleigh Abbey.

CHAPTER XXI.

LYDFORD.

UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI ? might well be the motto of the
little town of Lydford, one of the oldest boroughs in all
broad Devon, populous and wealthy long before the
Norman Conquest — almost the rival of Exeter, as we see
it first emerging from the mists of antiquity — now the mere
shadow of a shade. Some scattered houses, a few green
mounds, a crumbling ruin — these are modern Lydford —
all we have left beside a few legends and tattered memories
of former greatness : a few scattered entries that make up
the sum-total of a history which extends over more than
ten centuries. No town or village in the West teaches
the mournful lesson — vanitas vanitatum — so thoroughly as
Lydford. We are even left to guess at the cause of its
fall.

Like Exeter, we have in Lydford an ancient British
settlement ; but, unlike Exeter, one cast down from its
high estate. Approach it from any quarter, save where
the bridge of later days spans the chasm of the Lyd, and
the strength of the position is seen at once. So environed
is it with moor and bog, with hill and ravine, that in
ancient days there was but one mode of access, and that
most exposed and circuitous. The village stands upon a
tongue of land, bounded and defended towards the south
by the deep and, in old days, impassable gorge of the Lyd ;

1 74 History of Devonshire.

on the north by the ravine of a tributary of that river.
Northward and southward therefore, and on the angle to
the west, the natural strength of the position in days of
primitive warfare was enormous ; and all that was needed
was to guard the approach from the higher ground to the
east. This was done by the construction of a line of
earthworks, yet traceable, though never observed until
their existence was recorded by the writer, from one
valley or ravine to the other.

Although Lydford finds no place in history until Anglo-
Saxon times, it then appears as a town that had some
antiquity to boast. Its importance is shown by the fact
that it was the seat of a Saxon mint, sharing that honour
in Devon with Exeter and Totnes. Lydford pennies are
extant of the reign of yESelred the Unready, Cnut, Harold
Harefoot, and possibly of Eadweard the Confessor and
the second Harold. Its earlier antiquity is indicated
not only by the earthworks of the Kelts, but by the Keltic
dedication of its church to St. Petrock ; and, while the
font in the existing church is probably Saxon, there is
some reason to regard the north wall of that fabric as of
at least equal age.

It is under the reign of ^ESelred that Lydford first ap-
pears in the pages of history. The ' Saxon Chronicle '
records how, in 997, the Danes made a raid up the Tamar
and Tavy until they came to Hlidaforda, burning and
slaying everything they met ; burning Ordulf s minster at
^Etefingstoc (Tavistock), and bringing back to their ships
incalculable plunder. Whether the passage implies the
capture of Lydford by the Norsemen, to whom its mint
must have been a great attraction, or whether we are to
infer that it proved the barrier to their inroad, is not
certain. If taken and spoiled, recovery must have been
speedy, for ' Domesday ' ranks Lydford one of the four
Saxon boroughs of Devon— with Exeter, Barnstaple, and
Totnes — and as doing equal service. The most significant

Lydford. 175

' Domesday ' entry, however, is the statement that forty
houses had been laid waste in Lydford since the Conqueror
came to England. Prior to 1066, therefore, it is evident
that Lydford must have been the most populous centre
in Devon, Exeter alone excepted.

History is silent as to the cause of this devastation of
Lydford, but there seems every reason to believe that it
was connected in some way with the Conquest, and that
it probably arose from the resistance which the sturdy
little borough offered to the Norman arms. Exeter, while
resisting, as we have seen, gave way in time, and was
spared. William may have deemed it desirable to make
an example of Lydford, though more merciful even here
than in the Northern counties.

Lydford never thoroughly recovered this blow ; though,
as it remained the head of the Forest of Dartmoor, and
was subsequently appointed the prison of the Stannaries of
Devon, it retained some importance in the Middle Ages,
particularly in the early part of the thirteenth century.
Thus, when Edward I. summoned his first Parliament,
Lydford was one of the boroughs to which writs were
directed.

The Castle of Lydford, in part at least Late Norman,
dates from the latter part of the twelfth century. The
Keltic earthworks were continued as defences by the
Saxons. There was no place within the circuit of supreme
command whereon to plant a citadel to dominate the
whole. Okehampton traces its origin to the castle near
which it grew — here the castle is the child of the town.
The building is a true keep, wholly differing in character
from the shell keeps which, as at Plympton and Totnes,
were planted by the Normans upon the mounds of the
elder ' strengths ' ; and it was of peculiar importance as
one of the border fortresses by which the roads skirting
Dartmoor were commanded. The earliest traceable
mention of the castle in history is its grant, July 3ist, 1216,

j 76 History of Devonshire.

to William Briwere to be held during pleasure. A cen-
tury later (1305) it is named as the prison of the Stan-
naries.

Lydford law has the same bad proverbial reputation as
Jeddart justice ; and the rhymes of William Browne of
Tavistock, one of the sweetest of English pastoral poets,
are familiar far beyond the precincts of the county :

' I oft have heard of Lydford law,
How in the morn they hang and draw,

And sit in judgment after.
At first I wondered at it much,
But now I find their reason such

That it deserves no laughter.'

The piece is one of the most humorous topographical
poems in existence. The castle is likened to

' An old windmill,
The vanes blown off by weather.
* * * * •

' If any could devise by art
To get it up into a cart,
'Twere fit to carry lions !'

Besides the castle we are told

' There is a bridge, there is a church,

Seven ashes and an oak ;
Three houses standing and ten down.
*****
' One told me, " In King Caesar's time
The town was built of stone and lime "—

But sure the walls were clay ;
For they are fall'n for aught I see,
And since the houses are got free,

The town is run away.'

As to the neighbourhood and its denizens :

* This town 's enclosed with desert moors,
But where no bear nor lion roars,
And nought can live but hogs ;
For all o'erturned by Noah's flood,
Of fourscore miles scarce one foot's good,
And hills are wholly bogs.

Lydford. 177

'And near hereto 's the Gubbins' cave,
A people that no knowledge have

Of law, of God, or men :
Whom Caesar never yet subdued ;
Who lawless live, of manners rude.
All savage in their den.'

Fuller gives a description of these Gubbinses, utilized
by Kingsley in 'Westward Ho!' and the surname sur-
vives in the district, and in the saying ' Greedy Gubbins.'

Many have been the attempts to account for the origin
of 'Lydford law.' Local tradition avers that it origi-
nated in the cruelty of Jeffries during the Bloody Assize,
and that his ghost haunts the castle in the shape of a
black pig. But the Bloody Assize stopped short of Lyd-
ford, and the saying is far older than the days of Monmouth.
Browne wrote his rhymes when he visited Lydford to see
his friend, the Roundhead Colonel Hals, imprisoned there
by the brutal Sir Richard Grenville. But Browne had
often heard of the proverb, and it did not originate
with him. It has been usual to trace it to the practice of
the Stannary Courts, and to connect it with the case of
Richard Strode, imprisoned at Lydford as an offender
against the Stannary Laws in the reign of Henry VIII. ;
but Strode^was certainly incarcerated by process of law, and
by no means ' hung first and tried after.' Moreover, there
seems to be very fair ground for holding that, in the line of
action which led to his imprisonment, Strode was actuated
rather by personal motives, and was not, as most of the
county historians have assumed without inquiring into
the facts, a martyr for the public good. Be that as it
may, his detention in the * hainous, contagious, and detest-
able ' dungeon pit of Lydford, now open to the day withir
the castle walls, led to the declaration of the right of
Parliamentary free speech. Strode was member for
Plympton ; the sentence against him was annulled by
Act of Parliament, on the assumption that he was prose-

12

j 78 History of Devonshire.

cuted for preventing the tinners from injuring creeks and
harbours ; and it was declared in that statute that all pro-
ceedings against members of Parliament 'for any bill,
speaking, reasoning, or declaring of any matters ' in Par-
liament, should be void and of none effect.

In any case the experience of Strode could not origi-
nate ' Lydford law ;' for the expression occurs in a poem,
assigned by Mr. T. Wright, on internal evidence, to 1399 :
' Now be the law of Lydfford
in londe ne in water.'

We thus get an antiquity of at least five hundred years,
and come too near to the establishment of the Stannary
Prison to look to the maladministration of the Stannary
Laws for the origin of the phrase. It is highly probable,
therefore, that we must seek it in the fact that the Forest
Courts of Dartmoor were held at Lydford, and the in-
tolerable Forest Laws there administered. From the
peculiar character of these laws, it was quite possible for
the Chief Warden — whose post, as Sir C. S. Maine notes,
was executive rather than judicial — to inflict summary
punishment, and yet for the case to be inquired into at
the Court of Swainmote, and not adjudicated on for three
years at the Court of Justice Seat.

From the time of the Commonwealth down to the early
part of the last century, the castle was in ruins. It was
then restored, and used as a prison and as the meeting-
place of the Manor and Borough Courts until the founda-
tion of Princetown. But Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt moved
the courts to his new capital of the Moor, and Lydford
Castle fell into deeper decay than ever.

As a municipal borough, Lydford continued to possess
and exercise many rights and privileges until comparatively
recent times. The election of mayor ceased about the
middle of the last century, and the corporate insignia
have disappeared. The borough coroner was invariably
' the oldest and most grey-headed man in the place.'

CHAPTER XXII.

TAVISTOCK.

FEW places in Devon have a greater antiquity than
Tavistock, if we take the Saxon period into chief account.
The ' stock ' of the Tavy was the most important settle-
ment made by the Saxons on that river, and long before
the Conquest it assumed the characteristics of a provincial
centre of population and wealth. It was remarkable, until
1885, as being the only Parliamentary existing borough
in the county not municipal ; for it had never received
any charter of incorporation, although it had been repre-
sented since the 23rd of Edward I. ; and it retained as
its chief officer the ancient Saxon portreeve, elected by
the voices of his fellow -freeholders. The old village
commune of the earliest Teutonic settlers had therefore
direct succession in Tavistock. But even this does not
fully indicate the antiquity of organized human settlement
in the vicinity.

It is a fact that must have a meaning, if this can only be
defined, that nearly all the ancient inscribed stones 01
Devon are found upon one parallel in the south-west of
the county, between Stowford on the north and Yealmpton
on the south, the line passing through Tavistock as a kind
of centre. These all give token of ecclesiastical influence;
and two, by the Ogham writing which they bear, proof
also of Irish intercourse. They probably indicate there-

12 — 2

!8o History of Devonshire.

fore a period of active mission-work on the part of the
Irish Church, somewhere about the latter part of the fifth
and first half of the sixth century.

Of six such monuments found upon the line noted,
three will be found within the vicarage garden at Tavi-
stock, placed there by an enthusiastic antiquary of the
past generation— the Rev. E. A. Bray. Two of these
stones came from Buckland Monachorum. One, which
stood in a field, bears the inscription in Roman characters

— ' DOBUNNI FABRII FILI ENABARRI,' or simply ' NABARR '

—the reading adopted by Mr. C. Spence Bate. This
latter word is repeated as ' Nabarr ' in Ogham, and it is a
singular fact -that the stone supplied the last letter want-
ing—' b'— to the completion of Dr. Ferguson's South
British Ogham alphabet. The second Buckland Mona-
chorum stone was found by Mrc Bray in use as the support
of the roof of a blacksmith's shop. Here the legend is,
i SABINI FILI MACCODECHETI.' The third, which had been
adapted as a foot-bridge over a little stream near Tavi-
stock, appears to run, ' NEPRANI FILI CONBEVI,' though the
last word has been read ' CONDEVI.'

Of the other three inscribed stones of this group the
most interesting was found lying across a brook near
Fardel, Cornwood, and is now in the British Museum.
This is also bilingual, with the legend both in Roman and
in Ogham characters, slightly varied. It was the first
stone found in England with an Ogham inscription. The
legend runs, ' SANGRANVI FANONI MAQVIRINI.'

The Stowford stone stands in Stowford churchyard, a
sepulchral monument, which appears to commemorate a
certain * GUNIGLEI.' The lettering is very rude and peculiar,
and the reading quite uncertain. This version, by Mr.
C. Spence Bate, seems, however, the most probable ; and
certainly commends itself much more than the ' GURGLES '
of Professor Hubner. The chief interest about this stone
lies in the fact that, like the kindred memorial at Yealmpton

Tavistock. 1 8 1

to ' TOREVS ' or ' GOREVS ' (of which more anon), we find it
in a churchyard ; and, so far as appears, upon its original
site. Lustleigh, as we shall see, affords another illustration
of this ; though, from the fact that the stone there has
been diverted from its original purpose, by no means of so
marked a character.

But the history of Tavistock itself begins with the
establishment of the Abbey of St. Rumon. Ordulf, son of
Orgar, Ealdorman of Devon, is the reputed founder. He
is one of the semi-mythic heroes of the Saxon race who
may be found in almost every county, a man of amazing
strength — a giant, whose sport it was to stride a stream
and cut off with one blow of his hunting-knife the heads
of animals brought him for the purpose. He was com-
manded to build the Abbey in a vision, and his wife was
guided by an angel to the site. There is thus ample
room for discriminating criticism as to the circumstances
attending the foundation, even if we ignore the counter
tradition that it was the joint work of Ordulf 's father,
Orgar, and himself. This much, however, does seem
certain, that the Abbey was founded about the year 961 ;
and that in 997 it was destroyed by the Danes during the
inroad in which they carried fire and sword from the
mouth of the Tamar to Lydford. The monastery must
then have been of great size and very wealthy, though we
may reject the statement that Ordulf s magnificence made
it large enough for 1,000 men. It had, however, come
under royal patronage. Ordulf s sister was that ^Elfryth
(or Elfrida) whose career forms one of the most notable
features of Anglo-Saxon annals. Though familiar, her
story forms part of Devonian history, and falls into place
here. Eadgar, hearing of the beauty of Elfrida, sent
^E^elwold to view, with instructions to report if rumour
spoke truth, to the intent that if it did he might make her
his queen. Instead of securing her for his master the
unlucky noble fell in love with her himself, and, disparaging

History of Devonshire.

her to the King, easily gained his monarch's consent. At
length Eadgar visited Devon, and ^ESelwold, fearing the
consequences of his deceit, implored his wife to besmirch
her loveliness for awhile. She, finding that whereas she
was simply the wife of a noble she might have been
a queen, resented the fraud, and heightened her attractions
to the utmost of her power. The King came, saw, and
was overcome. ^Et5elwold was conveniently killed by
accident while hunting the following day with the monarch,
we may presume on Dartmoor, and his widow mounted
the throne. Her sons were Eadmund and ^ESelred, and
after the murder of his half-brother, Eadweard the Martyr,
by Elfrida's orders, at Corfe Castle, the latter succeeded
to the crown, and became the liberal patron of the Abbey
of Tavistock. To this connection was due the fact that
after its destruction by the Danes the Abbey was rebuilt
with so much greater grandeur that it eclipsed every
religious house in Devon, in the extent, convenience, and
magnificence of its buildings.

It was fortunate, too, in its early heads. Lyfing, who
from his eloquence obtained the title of ' Wordsnotera/
and in whom the Sees of Devon and Cornwall were
united at Crediton, was one of them. His successor was
^Eldred, afterwards Archbishop of York, who crowned
William the Conqueror. The final dedication was to St.
Mary and St. Rumon.

'Domesday' places Tavistock Abbey far at the
head of the religious houses in Devon, in the extent
and value of its estates. Fourteen manors, besides a
house at Exeter, were its landed possessions ; and the
total annual value is set down at £71 los. 7d. A note-
worthy fact also is that the Abbey had several military
tenants, some of whom may have been among the thanes
by whom the lands so held were occupied in Saxon times.
Tavistock itself had an enumerated population, exclusive
of the monks and their five military tenants, of 79, and

Tavistock. 183

was therefore the most populous place in the district at the
time the Survey was taken. To make its importance fully
apparent, however, other manors immediately adjacent
would have to be taken into account. There were a
dozen residents on that of Wrdiete, now Hurdwick, close
to the town ; while the next manor of Mideltone, now
Milton Abbot, had another fifty. Thus liberally endowed
at the time of the Conquest, the Abbey throve even more
mightily afterwards, for its possessions were so enlarged
by several liberal benefactors, that, while they do not seem
to have been always stewarded most needfully — and in
fact the monks in the fourteenth century bore a bad repu-
tation for luxury, gluttony, and laziness — its revenues
were valued at the Dissolution at £902 55. 7d.

In 1458 the abbot was mitred, and in 1514 Henry VIII.
put the finishing-touch to the Abbey's glories by calling its
head, Richard Banham, to the House of Lords as Baron
Hurdwick, while Pope Leo X. granted the same dignitary
a bull exempting the Abbey from episcopal jurisdiction. A
quarter of a century later came the surrender ; and the
site of the Abbey and its estates passed to John Russell,
ancestor of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford, by whom
they have ever since been enjoyed.

That Devonshire should be one of the first counties in
England into which the art of printing was introduced, is
due to the enterprise and zeal for learning of the monks of
Tavistock, in their later mended ways. Only two works
from this early Tavistock press now exist ; but as the first
of these is dated 1525, and the second 1534, they must
have produced much more than these two fragments.
The earliest is a copy of Boethius's ' Consolations of
Philosophy,' as translated by Walton of Osney : ' Em-
prented in the exempt monastery of Tauestok, in Den-
shyre, By me, Dan Thomas Rychard, Monke of the sayde
Monastery. To the instant desire of the ryght Worshyp-
ful esquyer, Mayster Robert Langdon.' Langdon was a

History of Devonshire.

Cornishman, of Keverell, in St. Martins-by-Looe. The
other extant publication of the Tavistock press is a copy
of the ' Statutes of the Stannaries.'

The remains of the Abbey are far from affording any
adequate idea of its former magnificence, thanks chiefly
to the iconoclastic work of a last century vandal named
Saunders, who built on part of the site, and with the
materials, the Abbey House, which is now the Bedford
Hotel. The east gate — essentially of late twelfth-century
work, with fifteenth-century additions, however — still
remains, with the western gateway, commonly called
Betsy Grimbal's Tower, the tradition being that a nun of
that name was murdered there. There are also the
refectory, now used as the Unitarian chapel, its groined
porch being converted into a dairy attached to the Bedford
Hotel ; a fragment of the north wall of the great Abbey
Church, sometimes called Ordulph's Tomb, and at other
times Childe's (of whom more anon) ; and the boundary
walls next the Tavy, with a tower which has always been
known as the Still House. The fragment of the Abbey
Church is in the churchyard of the parish church of St.
Eustatius ; but the site of the Abbey Church itself is now
part of the public street.

The Russells have ever been the most liberal of land-
lords. Every improvement made in Tavistock has been
carried out by the Duke for the time being, ' regardless
of expense,' with a taste as well as a liberality that have
resulted in making the little town— so far as its main
thoroughfares go— the handsomest of its size in the West of
England. The venerable parish church, and the yet more
venerable Abbey, have governed the style adopted in the
erection of the chief public buildings, which are all gathered
to one centre ; and much expense has been incurred in
the removal of structures which did not harmonize with
the prevailing mediaeval character. At the same time
all that was worthy of preservation has been fully kept.

Tavistock. 185

The gatehouse of the mansion of the Fitzes of Fitzford,
noted in local history as the scene of a duel between Sir
John Fitz and Sir Nicholas Slanning, in which the latter
was killed, had to be removed, but it was carefully rebuilt ;
and close by now stands the latest gift to the town of its
ducal lords, a magnificent statue of Tavistock's most dis-
tinguished son, Sir Francis Drake, by Boehm. Most of
the new public edifices, too, are built of the same material
as the old, a free-working green volcanic ash from Hurd-
wick. This is seen to special advantage in the buildings
of the Kelly College, founded on a site given by the
Russells, from a bequest of the late Admiral Kelly.

Tavistock is the chief mining centre in Devon, and was
one of the Stannary towns. Near it are the Devon
Consols Mines, which commenced with a capital of £1,000,
reworking an abandoned shaft, and immediately struck a
lode of copper so rich that nearly a million and a quarter
were paid in dividends. Not far off is Kingston Down,
of which it was said in old time :

* Kingston Down, well y-wrought,
Is worth London town, dear y-bought.'

But the modern operations in its mines have not borne
out the promise of the rhyme. Kingston was the scene
of the defeat of the Danes and their Cornish allies by
Eadgar, and of this it is said in Tavistock :

4 The blood that flowed down West Street
Would heave a stone a pound weight.'

Tavistock threw in its lot with the Parliament in the
Civil War of the seventeenth century. A town which had
chosen the famous Pym for representative, and which
had the Earl of Bedford for lord, would hardly do other.
At the commencement of the struggle in the West, Sir
George Chudleigh raised some troops here ; and after the
defeat of Ruthven at Bradock Down, Stamford retired on
Tavistock, but left it for Plymouth on the approach of the

1 86 History of Devonshire.

Royalist forces, who in their turn made it their head-
quarters. Having no defences, it was never made a
garrison, but served as a convenient station on the way
to Cornwall, for whichever side might for the time be
uppermost.

Prince Charles held a council here in December, 1645,
which proved the last attempt of the Cavaliers to make
head in the West. Exeter was then besieged by the
Roundheads ; but the Puritans of Plymouth were kept in
check by a blockade under Colonel Digby ; and, on the
arrival of a large reinforcement of trained bands from
Cornwall, it was agreed to march upon Totnes, and use
that town as a base of operations for the relief of Exeter.
The march was about to commence when news came of
the advance of Fairfax and Cromwell, and a hasty retreat
was beat to Launceston.

The Royalist leader most closely connected with Tavi-
stock was Sir Richard Grenville. His first association
with Tavistock was as the claimant of Fitzford House, in
right of Lady Howard, his wife, the heiress of the Fitz
family. This house was the occasion of the only fighting
Tavistock at this time saw ; being held for the King and
taken by Essex on his way into Cornwall in 1644. The
defeat of Essex proved Sir Richard's opportunity ; for he
added to his wife's estates of Fitzford and Walreddon
those of the Earl of Bedford and Sir Francis Drake, con-
fiscated by Charles, so that not only Tavistock itself but
a wide extent of surrounding country fell into his hands.
His wife, however, contrived to rescue her portion ; and
the Bedford and Drake estates went back to their original
owners when the Parliament gained the upper hand.

Lady Howard had been married three times, before the
Duke of Buckingham prevailed with her on behalf of
Grenville ; and she was so well alive to her own interests,
that she settled her estates beyond the power of Grenvilie
to control. His violence when he discovered this led to

Tavistock. 187

his being fined heavily in the Star Chamber, and in default
committed to the Fleet, whence he escaped to Holland.
On the breaking out of the Civil War, he naturally took
the Royalist side, as his wife inclined to the Parliament,
and, as a first reward of his loyalty, had a sequestration
of her estates. The meanness of his character is illustrated
by the fate of the unfortunate lawyer who had conducted
the suit against him — Francis Brabant ; for he hung him
as a spy.

Tavistock sent two notable men to St. Stephen's. One,
the great Pym, already mentioned ; who, with Strode
— one of the family of Newnham, Plympton — Hampden,
Holies, and Hazelrig, Charles I. sought to send to the
Tower for their fearless defence of the rights of the people.
The other, the unfortunate Lord William Russell, who
perished on the scaffold in 1683, a martyr to the popular
cause. Portraits of Pym and Russell, painted by Lady
Arthur Russell, adorn the New Hall of the town, which
contains the portraits of other local worthies by the same
lady.

For its size, Tavistock has produced more distinguished
men than any town in the county ; and the neighbour-
hood contains the ancient seats of many leading families
of olden time.

Chief of the worthies of Tavistock is the renowned Sir
Francis Drake, born in a cottage at Crowndale, probably
in the year 1539 ; but the date is uncertain, and all that
is known of Drake's parentage is that his father was a
clergyman. Drake is by no means an uncommon name
in the neighbourhood and throughout South Devon, and
all attempts to connect the Drakes of Tavistock with the
line of Ashe have failed. The Tavistock Drakes appear
to have been of the burgher class. The name occurs among
the monks, and while Sir Francis's father was a clergy-
man, a contemporary William Drake was vicar of Whit-
church. Clerical position was, however, in those days no

1 88 History of Devonshire.

proof of family, and the nearest evidence of station we
have is the record of a William Drake of Tavistock — temp.
Henry VII. — who was a smith. The register of the
name of Francis Drake as a Plymouth freeman, in 1570,
shows that no claim was then made to descent or arms,
the distinctions of rank being most scrupulously observed
in that record.

Francis Drake took to the sea, and made his first im-
portant voyages under his kinsman, John Hawkins, after-
wards the famous Gir John. Joint sufferers from the
Spanish treachery at San Juan de Ulloa, in 1568, from that
moment they waged unceasing war against Spain on their
own account. Drake's first independent expedition was
in 1572, when he took Nombre de Dios, Vera Cruz, and
acquired great booty. In 1577 he sailed from Plymouth
Sound on the most remarkable voyage ever undertaken by
an English sailor. He had seen the Pacific while blocking
up 'the gulf of Mexico, for two years glorious with continual
defeats,' and had resolved to sail thereon. So, with a squad-
ron of five vessels, the largest the Pelican of 120 tons, he
started to circumnavigate the globe. Nearly three years
elapsed ere he returned. Desertion and disaffection broke
up his little fleet ; but he persevered, and brought his vessel
back to Plymouth, laden with treasure, on the 26th of
September, 1580. Great was the rejoicing, and great the
glory, for he had the honour of entertaining Elizabeth on
board his famous ship at Deptford, and of receiving
knighthood at her hands. In 1585 he did great damage
to the Spaniards in the West Indies with a fleet of twenty-
five sail; and in 1587 performed the exploit which he
jocularly called 'singeing the King of Spain's beard '• — with
his fleet so ravaging the Spanish coast as to delay the
sailing of the Armada for a year. When the Armada
came he was the vice-admiral of the fleet which assembled
in Plymouth Sound to await them, and which hounded
the unlucky braggart Spaniards to their destruction up

Tavistock. 189

Channel. In August, 1595, Drake and John Hawkins
sailed together from Plymouth in joint command of a fleet
intended for the West Indies, which from the first was
destined to failure. Hawkins died a few weeks after the
ships sailed — partly of old age, partly of chagrin. Two
months had not elapsed before Drake followed, from
dysentery, produced in the first instance by the disasters
which attended the expedition.

William Browne, the poet, author of ' Britannia's Pas-
torals,' was born at Tavistock in 1590.

Kilworthy, now sadly modernized, is the ancient seat of
the Glanvilles, of whom the first distinguished member is
Sir John, Judge of the Common Pleas under Elizabeth.
Either by him, or by his son, Kilworthy was built. A
daughter of Judge Glanville has been regarded as the
heroine of the once popular Elizabethan drama — * Page
of Plymouth ' — founded unhappily upon fact. Ulalia
Glanville was attached to one George Strangwidge, but
was married by her parents to an old and wealthy merchant
of Plymouth, named Page. This unequal match led to
the murder of the husband, and the wife and the lover
and their accomplices were executed for the crime at
Barnstaple. The event was made the theme of ballads
and tales as well as of the play ; and the horror of the
deed was heightened in the popular mind by the tradition
that Judge Glanville himself pronounced the fatal sentence.
It is a sufficient answer to this to show that Glanville did
not become a judge until seven years after the murder ;
but beyond this, Ulalia Page was not the daughter of the
Judge, but of another member of the Glanville family who
had removed from Tavistock to Plymouth ; and from
whom, in all probability, the once famous author of
* Saducismus Triumphatus ' — Joseph Glanvill, Prebendary
and F.R.S., born at Plymouth in 1636 (died 1680) — was
descended.

Judge Glanville's second son John was another Tavi-

190 History of Devonshire.

stock worthy, who sat for several years in the House of
Commons as member for Plymouth, and filled the difficult
post of Speaker in the Parliament of 1640. When all
hopes of a peaceful understanding were at an end,
Glanville withdrew with the King to Oxford ; and, when
the conflict was over, paid the penalty of his loyalty in
imprisonment and fine. He lost a son, Francis Glanville,
in the defence of Bridgewater in 1645. After the Restora-
tion he was appointed King's Serjeant, and died in 1661.
By the failure of the male line Kilworthy came to the
Manatons, who are now also extinct.

Another Tavistock worthy of the law was Sir John
Maynard, said to have been born in a house that stood on
the site of the Abbey. He was a man of note throughout
the stirring days of the Stuarts and the Commonwealth,
his long life covering the whole of the Stuart reigns until
the final expulsion of the family and the accession of
William of Orange. Born in 1602, he did not die until
1690. William remarked, when he was presented at
Court, that he must have outlived all the judges and
eminent men of his day. ' Yes,' rejoined Maynard, ' and
I should have outlived the laws too, had it not been for
the happy arrival of your Majesty.' Maynard was elected
to the Long Parliament for Totnes and for Newport in
Cornwall, but preferred Totnes, and took a prominent
part in the debates of the house. He was engaged in the
impeachments of Strafford and Laud, and sat in the
Assembly of Divines ; but was sent to the Tower in 1647
and 1653 for opposing Parliamentary measures. He
pleaded strongly for the life of the King, and was too
moderate a man for the temper of the times ; but was
elected in 1657 f°r Plymouth, of which town he had
become recorder, in succession to his townsman Glanville,
in 1640. At the Restoration he was again elected for
Plymouth, and unseated as having been elected by the
Mayor and Corporation, and not by the freemen.

Tavistock. 1 9 1

Charles II. then made him Serjeant-at-law, and knighted
him ; and in 1679 he was returned for Plymouth un-
questioned, and continued to sit for the town until the
accession of James II., though displaced from the recorder-
ship by Charles in 1684 in favour of John Grenville, Earl
of Bath. Thenceforward, in spite of his age, Maynard
proved a vigorous opponent of the royal policy — refused
to take part in the persecution of the Seven Bishops, and
became an ardent promoter of the Revolution.

Brent Tor is a remarkable eminence, of volcanic aspect
and origin, crowned by a quaint little church dedicated
to St. Michael. This is said to have been erected by a
merchant, who, in peril at sea, vowed, if saved, to build
a church on the first point of land he saw. It is also
associated with a local version of the common legend,
that the site of the church was to have been at the
bottom of the hill, but that in the night the materials
were carried to the top. In some versions of this myth
the conditions are reversed ; and in all likelihood it is
simply a survival of the antagonism between the old
heathen faith in high places, grafted on a nominal Chris-
tianity, and the more definite religious idea which would
have nothing to do with places that had been profaned by
idolatrous rites. The form of the legend would naturally
depend upon the party who succeeded. As the Tor
belonged to the Abbey of Tavistock, we may assume that
the church was founded by the monks.

And here a curious question arises. The manor of
Liddaton, as Lideltone, belonged to the Abbey at the
compilation of ' Domesday ;' and this was in Brent Tor
parish. But the Abbey had another manor called Bernin-
tone, which has not been identified ; and this also may be
associated with Brent. The one name seems to echo the
other. Moreover, this manor of Bernintone was not only
extensive and fairly populous, containing thirty-five plough-
lands and an enumerated population of forty-eight ; but,

192 History of Devonshire.

in addition to serfs, villeins, bordars, and swineherds, it
had four bures and a quantity of ' common pasture.'

In the adjoining parish of Marystow the Abbey held
from Saxon times the manor of Radone or Raddon.
Sydenham, which gave name to a family long extinct, had
come to the Wises so early as the reign of Henry IV. ;
and their many-gabled house, now that of the Tremaynes,
is the best preserved Elizabethan mansion in this part of
the county, although it was garrisoned for the King under
Colonel Holbourn in 1645. Built by Sir Thomas Wise, it
passed from his name in the next generation ; for his only
son died unmarried, and his granddaughter, Bridget
Hatherleigh, brought it to the Tremaynes, in whom it
has ever since remained. Prior to this marriage, the
Tremaynes had been seated at Collacombe in Lamerton
for several generations. They had the estate of Collacombe
by marriage from the Trenchards ; but the house was
erected by the Tremaynes in the latter part of the sixteenth
century, and retains many picturesque features. Here
were born the twin Tremaynes, Nicholas and Andrew, of
whose likeness and sympathy Prince tells some wonderful
tales, and who both fell at the siege of Newhaven in 1563.
Among the Tremayne memorials in Lamerton Church is
one recording how

' One of both sore wounded lost his health,
And t'other slain, revenging brother's death.'

Lifton, which adjoins Marystow, one of the frontier
parishes of Devon next Cornwall, passed from the Crown,
by the grant of King John in 1199, to Agatha, who had
been nurse to Eleanor his mother. By Edward I. the
manor, hundred, and advowson were given to Thomas of
Woodstock, and descended thence through the Hollands
to the Nevilles. Then the Harrises had it a couple of
centuries, and next came the Arundells.

The Lysonses state that it was held of the chapel of

Tavistock. 193

Berkhampstead by the annual render of a pound of
incense.

Kelly is noteworthy as affording one of the few con-
tinuing local instances of families seated on the estates
whence they take name. The Kellys of Kelly have held
this manor from the time of Henry II. at least.

Milton Abbot, already mentioned, contains the lovely
Devonshire seat of the Dukes of Bedford — Endsleigh.
Edgcumbe, here, is the original home of the family of
Edgcumbe, and has continued in the possession of the
elder branch from the reign of Edward III. The younger
branch is ennobled as Earls Mount Edgcumbe.

There is additional testimony to the importance of the
valley of the Tavy in the early days of Saxon settle-
ment, in the fact that Whitchurch parish — Wicerce in
' Domesday ' — by its name indicates the existence here of
a church in pre-Norman times. Like the other parishes
around Tavistock, in later days it testified to the im-
portance of that ancient town by giving home to several
families of ancient gentry. A younger branch of the
Courtenays was long settled at Walreddon ; Harwell was
a seat of the Glanvilles for some three centuries before
they removed to Kilworthy ; Grenofen, now belonging to
the Chichesters, was long in the Pollards ; Britsworthy
ong continued in the Mewys, Moortown in the Mooringes,
and Sortridge in the Pengellys. Whitchurch was once an
archpresbytery, on the foundation of Robert Champeaux,
abbot of Tavistock about the year 1300, the rector being
archpriest and having three fellows.

CHAPTER XXIII.

BUCKLAND MONACHORUM.

ONE of the hundreds of the Exon ' Domesday,' which
neither the Lysonses nor any other general writers on
Devonian history identified, is that of Walchentone,
which appears again in the ' Exchequer Domesday ' as
Wachetone, with the appendant manors of Svdtone
(now Plymouth), Tanbretone (Tamerton), and Macretone
(Maker), all part of the royal demesne. Walchentone
hundred is now represented by the hundred of Roborough ;
and Walchentone itself is to be found in the moorland
parish of Walkhampton, the identification being easy to
anyone acquainted with the ancient and indeed current
pronunciation — * Wackington.' Nowhere in Devon has
so great a change taken place in the relationships of
manors — Walkhampton being quite an insignificant
parish, important only in its association with Buckland
Abbey, and Sutton the site of the largest town of the
West.

The Cistercian Abbey of Buckland was founded by
Amicia, the widowed countess of Baldwin, seventh Earl
of Devon, and the mother of Isabella de Fortibus. She
acquired in 1273 lands for the purpose by purchase or
gift from her daughter, and in 1280 signed the founda-
tion deed, vesting in the monks and their successors the
manors of Buckland, Bickleigh, and Walkhampton, with

Buckland Monachorum. 195

the advowsons, and the hundred of Roborough, for the
use of the Abbey dedicated in honour of God and the
blessed Mary, mother of God, and the blessed Benedict.
The monks came from the Abbey of Quarr in the Isle of
Wight, founded by Baldwin, second Earl of Devon, and
Robert was the first abbot. They were unfortunate
enough to start by incurring episcopal censure, cele-
brating divine offices without the consent of the parish
priest or the bishop's license, and Bishop Bronescombe
therefore laid them under interdict. This was relaxed at
the solicitation of Queen Eleanor, and speedily removed.

The data for the history of Buckland are very scanty.
Soon after the foundation the title of the Abbey to the
hundred was questioned, and judgment given for the
King. Yet the abbot continued to exercise the jurisdic-
tion, and in that right successfully resisted the attempt of
Edward II. to grant a charter to the town of Plymouth,
which came within his authority. When Plymouth was
incorporated the Abbey was compensated with the church
of Bampton. In 1336 the royal license was granted to
crenellate the Abbey, Plymouth and its vicinity being at
this time in constant peril from foreign descent. Having
asserted their rights against the King, the convent were
not likely to allow them to be infringed by a plain squire.
James Derneford, lord of the manor of East Stonehouse,
set up a pillory and tumbrel in his manor, and held a
court of frankpledge there. This was resisted by the
monks, and eventually referred to the arbitration of
William Hylle, Prior of Plympton, and James Chudlegh.
They, in 1448, decided in favour of the Abbey, and Derne-
ford, besides removing the pillory and tumbrel, had to pay
£20 as a fine.

Thirty years later the monks themselves were cast.
They were sued at Lydford for encroachments upon the
rights of the duchy of Cornwall within the forest of
moor, and were found to have offended.

13—2

History of Devonshire.

None of the sixteen abbots of Buckland was a man of
note ; but Thomas Olyver, who succeeded in 1463, was a
warm supporter of the Earl of Richmond, afterwards
Henry VII., and was proscribed, without result, by
Richard. The last abbot was John Toker. At the Dis-
solution the revenues were no more than £241 173. g-|d. ;
but then Toker had been mindful of ' those of his own
household,' and just prior to the surrender had leased
the rectorial tithes of Buckland, Walkhampton, Bickleigh,
Sheepstor, and Bampton, to his brother Robert, and his
nephews William and Hugh Toker.

The Abbey passed through various lay hands with
unusual rapidity. George Pollard, of London, had a
lease granted in 1539 for twenty-one years. In 1542 Sir
Richard Grenville had a grant of the reversion. In 1580
the Grenvilles sold the property to John Hele and
Christopher Harris, and nine months later it was conveyed
to Sir Francis Drake, to whose representatives it still
belongs. With the exception of the manor of Buckland,
the Abbey lands at Bickleigh, Walkhampton, and else-
where in the neighbourhood were purchased in 1546 by-
John Slanning. Buckland was bought by a London
haberdasher, named Richard Crymes, in the same year ;
but in 1660 it also was sold to the Slannings. From the
Slannings, through heiresses, the estates passed to the
Heywoods ; from them, by purchase, to Sir Masseh
Manasseh Lopes ; and they are now the property of his
grandson, Sir Massey Lopes.

What is yet known as Buckland Abbey is really the
Abbey Church, converted by Grenville into a dwelling-
house. The chief interest of the place lies in its connec-
tion with the great sailor into whose hands it subsequently
came. There are portraits of Drake and of his captive,
Don Pedro de Valdez, Vice-Admiral of the Armada, for
whom the Abbey became a prison pending the payment
of his ransom ; shields of arms of the Drake and allied

Buckland Monachorum. 197

families ; and personal relics of Sir Francis — as his drum,
his Bible, sword, and shield ! Another noted warrior with
whom Buckland is associated is General Elliot, Lord
Heathfield, defender of Gibraltar, whose monument is in
the church.

Buckland parish, now from the Abbey known as
Buckland Monachorum, was in ' Domesday ' the most
populous manor between Tavistock and the sea — held by
William de Pollei, in succession to Brismar — and had both
a salt work and a fishery. Brismar had also held, and •
William had succeeded to, the adjacent manors of Bick-
leigh and Sampford, now Sampford Spiney. The added
name, in this latter case, is said to have been derived
from its possession by the family of Spinet or De Spineto ;
but as the neighbouring parish of Shaugh takes its title
from the Saxon sceacga, 'rough coppice,' it is quite as
probable that the Spiney here may be simply the allied
word spinney. Between Sampford and Shaugh lies the
parish of Meavy, made up of four Domesday manors of
that name, all of which passed from their Saxon holders
to Judhel of Totnes. To this fact is probably due the
foundation of a Norman church here, whereof some trace
yet remains in the present edifice. Either one of the
Meavys (the ancient form is Mewi, and the river, whence
the name is taken, is called the Mew in the older records),
or an unidentified manor of Metwi, is in all probability
the modern parish of Sheepstor ; but one of them has
been identified by Mr. Davidson in half a mansa granted
by Cnut in 1031 to a thane named ^Etheric. The
boundaries can still be traced, even to a cleaca, or set of
stepping-stones across the river.

Sheepstor alone of all the group, apart from Buckland,
has any historical connection. It was the ancient home
of the Elfords, and one of these, a staunch Royalist, is
said to have found refuge from his enemies in a cavity
amidst the confused heap or * clatter ' of detached rocks

I98 History of Devonshire,

that clothes the precipitous side of Sheepstor Hill, and
possibly named it Schittis or Schattis Tor— the older
form— from its shattered aspect. The cavity is now
commonly called the Pixies' Hole. Elford is said to have
employed his time in painting its rocky sides, but of this
there is no trace.

At Bickleigh there still remains the old house of the
Slannings, as at Sheepstor, its daughter parish, that of the
Elfords, and at Meavy the manor-house of the Strodes and
Drakes. South Devon has a large number of ancient
mansions, degraded to farms. Of the Slannings, who
were somewhat intimately connected with Plymouth, and
who were settled at Shaugh before Bickleigh, the most
distinguished member was Sir Nicholas, one of the ' four
wheels of Charles's wain,' who was killed at the siege of
Bristol, 1643.

Two important parishes lie at the junction of the Tavy
with the Tamar, one on either side — Beer Ferrers and
Tamerton Foliott. Beer is the Birland which before the
Conquest belonged to Ordulf, and is entered in * Domes-
day ' as held by Reginald de Valletort under the Count of
Moreton. It was a very extensive manor, and had seven
salt-works. Henry, the common ancestor of the Ferrerses,
whence its distinctive name, held it as early as the reign
of Henry II. Sir William de Ferrers had a license for
castellating his house here in 1337 > but before the end of
that century the coheiress of the Ferrerses brought the
manor to the Champernownes, and they to the Willoughbys,
Lords Broke. In the latter half of the fifteenth century
one of this family was Lord High Steward of Plymouth,
and engaged in sharp controversy with his neighbours the
Edgcumbes at Cotehele, concerning which some amusing
records are still extant. Curiously enough the Earl of
Mount Edgcumbe is now the owner of this property, by
descent from the coheiress of the Earls of Buckingham-

Buckland Monachorum. 199

shire ; they in their turn had it by descent in the female
line from Sir John Maynard, who purchased it of the
Broke successors. Ley, here, is said to have been the
original seat of the Leys, Earls of Marlborough.

So far back as the reign of Edward I., and probably
much earlier, it had been discovered that Beer contained
mineral treasures of no little value ; and there are extant
records of 1298 which show that Edward I. was then
working silver lead-mines in Byr or Birlond on his own
account, and that the process of extracting and refining
the silver was well understood. The mines have been
worked at intervals ever since ; and were in extensive
operation when the principal workings were drowned out
by the Tamar breaking through its bed. 140 ounces of
silver have been extracted per ton of lead ; and 6,000 ounces
of silver are said to have been produced in six weeks.

It was probably in consequence of mining prosperity that
the little town of Beer Alston in Beer Ferrers gradually
acquired importance. It had a market granted about
1294, and was made a Parliamentary borough by Elizabeth.
It returned two members in right of certain burgage
tenures until 1832. Risdon derives the distinctive name
Alston from Alen9on, to whom he says the manor was
given by the Conqueror; but as the latter statement is
wrong, the former need not trouble us.

Beer Ferrers Church wras rebuilt by William de Ferrers,
and contains his monument, with other memorials of the
family. He also founded here a collegiate chantry.

Matthew Tindal, the Deist, was born here in 1657, his
father being rector of the parish.

For something like a century at least Beer Ferrers has
been noted for its orchards and fruit-gardens, and it sends
away enormous quantities of fruit every season by rail.

Tamerton Foliott, once a market-town and occasionally
called a borough, takes name from the Foliotts, who had

2OO History of Devonshire.

their residence at Warleigh. The heiress of the Foliotts
brought it to the Gorges, and from them it passed, by
female heirs, to Bonvile, Coplestone, and Bampfylde.
For some century and a half it has been the seat of the
Radcliffes. The Coplestone oak, which stood on the green
by the church, was the traditional scene of a murder by
one of the Coplestones, the ' fatal oak ' of Mrs. Bray's
' Warleigh.' Gilbert Foliott, successively Abbot of
Gloucester, Bishop of Hereford (1149), and Bishop of
London (1161), was a native of Tamerton. One of the
most learned men of his day, he was also a steady opponent
of A Becket, and was excommunicated by that primate
and the Pope accordingly, but relieved by a synod which
he called. He held the See of London twenty years.

Maristow in this parish, the seat of Sir Massey Lopes,
was the site of the ancient chapel of St. Martin (whence
the name) belonging to the canons of Plympton. After
the Dissolution it came to the Champernownes, who sold
it in 1550 to John Slanning of Shaugh. Thence it
descended with the rest of the Slanning estates, and was
bought by Sir Masseh Manasseh Lopes in 1798. It seems
probable that Maristow was the chapel of St. Martin de
Blakestane (the next Domesday manor to Tamerton),
held by the Priory temp. Henry I., and given by
Paganel. It is also said to have been the gift of William
de Pin and his daughter Sibella.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PLYMOUTH, DEVONPORT, AND STONEHOUSE.

THE recorded history of Plymouth cannot be traced much
farther than the Norman Conquest. The town finds no
mention in the 'Saxon Chronicle.' Risdon, indeed,
citing the life of St. Indractus, tells us that by the
Saxons it was named Tamarweorth, which is much more
likely, if the reference has any historic value, to be the
Saxon name of what is now Drake's Island — ' the Island
of the Tamar.' Leland also asserts that much of what
afterwards came to be called Plymouth was held by the
canons of the ancient Saxon college of Plympton, which
Bishop Warelwast made the foundation of the famous
Plympton Priory. But these statements have no authority ;
and the earliest undoubted and distinct mention we have
of Plymouth is as the Sutton of ' Domesday,' held by
William in succession to the Confessor, an insignificant
manor, with an enumerated population of 7 only. It was
many a long year after this that the manor was granted
by the Crown to the Valletorts, and by them in part to
the monks of Plympton ; and that mainly by the fostering
care of the prior and his brethren, though largely as the
result of independent effort, the foundations of the chief
centre of population of the West were laid.

' Domesday ' affords the materials for a striking com-
parison between past and present. The eight manors,

2Q2 Plistory of Devonshire.

which included what is now the great triple community of
the three towns of Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse,
with their suburban area, had in 1086 an enumerated
population of 61, and were valued at £7 153. annually.
The population is now 150,000, and the annual value
£380,000. In eight centuries the population has increased
2,500 times, and the value nearly 5,000. This is the most
remarkable contrast Devon has to show.

But the tale of the early days of Plymouth would be
incomplete if we stopped here. Plymouth herself may
be this mere infant of some eight centuries' growth ; but
the magnificent harbour to which she owes her birth had
played its part in the national life, such as that was, many
a long year before the Norman Conquest ; and for the
first settlement on its shores we must go back at least to
the days of the ancient Keltic civilization, which preceded
the coming of the Roman, and in the West was never
supplanted by him. The eastern shores of Plymouth
Sound, in the neighbourhood of Staddon Heights, have
yielded abundant traces of the presence of a com-
paratively dense and cultured population. Mount Batten
has produced examples of the earliest and latest British
coinage in gold, silver, and copper; and in an ancient
cemetery hard by were found a number of articles of
bronze — the final and most finished illustrations of the
elder pre-Roman civilization of the land. Here was the
Stadio Deuentia. of the Ravennat. Nay, the prehistoric
dates go farther yet. Not only are worked flints of rude
type found on the heights on either side of Plymouth
Sound, but there was found beneath an ancient house in one
of the oldest streets of Plymouth the remains of a kitchen-
midden, and below them a singular example of urn burial.
Again, the oldest name of the promontorial district to
the east of Plymouth, now called Cattedown, is Kingston,
or Hangstone — Stonehenge reversed ; and the rude sketch-
map of the coasts, made in the reign of Henry VIII. in

Plymouth Devonport, and Stonehouse. 203

connection with his schemes of fortification, depicts
what appears intended for a ' hanging stone,' or
cromlech.

There is no evidence of the position of Plymouth in
the Roman era. With the exception of a few scattered
coins, hardly a score in all, found at various points in the
neighbourhood, the Romans have left no traces of their
visits here. True, the remains of a Roman galley are
said to have been found silted up near Plympton, but the
authority for its identification is not clear. There is no
means whatever of linking on the Saxon Sutton of
' Domesday ' with the Keltic settlement of Staddon (the
direct Saxon continuant of which was probably the once
fortified village of Plymstock), unless we are content to
fall back upon myth and legend, and these will carry us
very much farther afield.

There seems no reason for questioning the honesty of
Geoffrey of Monmouth when he states that he is re-
producing an ancient record brought from Brittany ; and
while he did not invent the story of Brutus the Trojan,
there must have been some reason for associating the
Hoe at Plymouth with the legendary combat of Corinseus
and Goemagot, and perpetuating the memory of the
association by cutting the * effigies ' of the two champions
in the greensward there, renewed for centuries at the cost
of the Corporation. But while either Geoffrey or one
of his editors erred seriously in identifying the Hamo's
Port, which finds such frequent mention in his * Chronicle '
as the chief port of Western Britain, with Southampton,
on the single score of the ' ham ' common to both, these
references do appear to point somewhat definitely to a
regular use in the Keltic period of the estuary of the
Tamar for British maritime expeditions, seeing that it
has descended to us at the present day as the Hamoaze.
Hamo's Port is made the fitting centre by Geoffrey of
some of the most stirring scenes in the traditional

2O4 History of Devonshire.

national life, and it is the Hamoaze that best suits the
references.

Plymouth has been treated as one of the ports to
which the Phoenicians traded in quest of tin. It may
have been so, but there is no proof. It has been suggested
further that the many-named little islet in the Sound,
probably the true Tamarweorth, subsequently St.
Michael's, Tristram's, St. Nicholas's, and now Drake's
Island, was the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus. To that we
may give a distinct denial. Thus, all we really know with
certainty of the origin of Plymouth — this important factor
in the general history of the country — is, that whilst the
shores of the Sound have been peopled, perhaps con-
tinuously, from far-distant prehistoric times, at the date
of the Norman Conquest its place was occupied by a
tiny hamlet of the name of Sutton. There is, indeed,
good evidence that the neighbourhood, if not the actual
site, was even then of some importance. Plymouth is
the only locality in Devon that has so far yielded traces
of the Teutonic 'mark' — certain lands within the borough
which retained a very complicated ownership until the
present day, being noted in ancient deeds as ' landscore
lands,' and as held in landscore tenure. Moreover, while
the borders of the Sound do not appear to have afforded
any special spoil to the Danes when they sailed up the
Tamar and Tavy and burnt Tavistock — Wembury, on its
eastern shore, at the mouth of the Yealm, seems the
most likely scene of the Danish defeat in 851 by the
Ealderman of Devon ; though Okenbury on the Erme,
and Wickaborough in Berry Pomeroy, are also candidates
for identification as the place which has come down to us
in the ' Saxon Chronicle ' as Wiganbeorche.

Whytheinfant Plymouth was called Sutton =Southtown,
has never been clearly made out ; but the older part o
the borough, which still bears the name of ' Old Town,'
preserved in Old Town Street, was apparently known by

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 205

the same title. It was not until the year 1439 that the
familiar Plymouth supplanted the older form, though it
had been in occasional use at least a century before. The
growth of the community was very rapid. Leland states
that in the latter part of the twelfth century it was still ' a
mene thing as an Inhabitation for fischars.' And an official
inquiry made in 1318 by the Sheriff of the county, records
that prior to the foundation of the ' ville of Sutton,' there
was a place on the shores of the ancient creek, now
harbour, of Sutton Pool, where the fishermen used to sell
their fish. This must have been long anterior to the
present market rights, which date from 1254. Not until
the manor passed from the Crown to the Valletorts did
the town begin to grow. They made it their occasional
residence, and gave freely of their land to the Priory of
Plympton. Successive priors then encouraged settle-
ment, and hence by the side of the original * Old Town,'
distinguished as Sutton Valletort or Vawter, there grew
up the new town of Sutton Prior, which speedily dis-
tanced its elder sister. Rapid was the growth when
prosperity fairly set in.

While the original foundation of the mother church of
St. Andrew certainly dates well back in the twelfth
century, the Carmelites established themselves in the
town in 1313, the Franciscans were not very much later,
and the Dominicans were also speedily represented. To
the siege of Calais in 1346, Plymouth sent more ships and
men than any other town save Dartmouth, Yarmouth,
and Fowey. And the latter part of the fourteenth century
found Plymouth one of the best known and most thriving
ports in England, with a corporation of some kind bear-
ing rule, and with so large a population that the Subsidy
Roll of 1377 records a taxable inhabitancy of 4,837, and
thus gives it the rank of the fourth town in the kingdom,
London, York, and Bristol alone preceding. In these
early days of the national life no town advanced with

2o6 History of Devonshire.

such rapid strides ; in later centuries no provincial com-
munity has had more important links with the national
history.

But all was not quiet progress. The need of defensive
works was recognised at least as early as the reign of
Richard II. ; and the ' Town Ligger ' records that the
place was burnt three times by the French and Bretons,
in 1377, 1400, and 1403. But these were not the only
occasions on which it was assailed ; nor need this excite
wonder, seeing that the port was made the headquarters
of so many hostile armaments in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. The first great fleet recorded as
sailing from its waters is one of 325 vessels, in 1287, for
Guienne. The Black Prince made Plymouth the centre
of his operations against France, and sailed thence in
1355 on the expedition which was crowned by the victory
of Poictiers. Retaliation was therefore natural ; and the
attempts were even more frequent than the municipal
annals record. Thus, in 1339, tne French fired the town,
but were repulsed by Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon ;
in 1350 they tried again, but were only able to destroy
some ' farms and fair places.' In 1400, the fleet of James
de Bourbon, after doing considerable damage,- was
assailed and partially destroyed by a violent storm. The
worst invasion, and the last, was that of a body of Bretons
under the Sieur du Chastel, in 1403. No less than 600
houses were then burnt, the greater part of the town
sacked, and many of the inhabitants taken prisoners.
The chief scene of the ravages of the invaders has been
distinguished to this day by the name of Briton Side.

There is good evidence, although successive fires have
destroyed all the earlier records of the town, that after
this the prosperity of Plymouth waned. In 1439-40, how-
ever, the town was formally incorporated by Act of Par-
liament, and again began to thrive. The incorporation
was really the extension of a much older corporation,

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 207

possibly originating with the Valletorts, for names of
prepositi or mayors occur as early as 1310, and the
Parliamentary representation commenced in 1298. What
the Act did was to relieve the community from its depend-
ence on the Priory ; and the burgesses thenceforth prided
themselves upon belonging to the ' Kinge's towne of
Plymothe,' as their ancient seal testifies.

While there is no direct proof that the town took any
active part in the Wars of the Roses, there is no reason
to doubt that its sympathies were Lancastrian ; for here,
in 1470, did the Duke of Clarence, with the Earls of
Pembroke, Warwick, and Oxford, land to excite the revolt
which led to the temporary restoration of Henry VI. ;
and here, too, in the following year, disembarked Margaret
pf Anjou, on her ill-starred way to share in the final
disaster of Tewkesbury. Nevertheless, Henry VII. could
not land at Plymouth in 1483, because of the close guard
kept. The attitude of the townsfolk towards the War-
beckian insurrection is shown by two or three entries of
corporate expenditure, which speak of a party being sent
into Cornwall to ' dfend Pkyn ' — defend being used in the
old and now forgotten sense of opposition. The commerce
of Plymouth with France and Spain was so great at the
close of this century, that the selection of the town for
the disembarkation of Katherine of Aragon, in 1501, was
but natural. Right heartily was she welcomed. During
her stay she was the guest of a rich merchant prince
named Paynter; and the Receiver's Accounts record,
among other matters, how the Corporation gave her six
oxen, five-and-twenty sheep, three hogsheads of ' Gaston '
and claret wine, and a pipe of ' Meskedell ;' while ' my
lady pryncs ys amner ' (almoner) had ten shillings to
' wryte oure supplicacion yn Spaynysch and in latyn, and
to be oure salucyt.' Thus early did the burghers of
Plymouth establish a precedent for the now inevitable
address.

208 History of Devonshire.

In the opening years of the sixteenth century Plymouth
began to fit herself for her leading share in the glories of
the reign of Elizabeth ; and the pioneer in this work was
one William Hawkins, the first prominent member of the
greatest family of merchant seamen and heroes England
has known. For his ' skill in sea causes ' this William
Hawkins the elder was much esteemed by Henry VIII.,
and he was the first Englishman who sailed a ship into
the Southern Seas. He had two worthy sons. The first,
another William Hawkins, was the most influential resi-
dent of Elizabethan Plymouth — a merchant and a sailor,
the holder of a commission under the Prince of Conde,
and, like the rest of his kinsfolk, quite as ready to^fight as
to trade. His son, a third William, was the founder of
the East India Company's first trading-house at Surat,
and an ambassador to the Great Mogul at Agra.

The most famous of the family was the second son of
Henry VIII. 's favourite captain — the renowned Sir John
Hawkins ; the first Englishman to take a ship into the
Bay of Mexico ; the early friend of his relative, the re-
doubtable Sir Francis Drake ; converted from an adven-
turous trader into the heroic scourge of Spain by Spanish
treachery at San Juan de Ulloa ; for many a long weary
year the Treasurer of the Navy and the man to whom
is due all the credit of preparing the Royal Fleet to meet
the Armada; the first true friend of the British sailor; and
not only the ablest captain, but the best shipwright of his
time. Probably born in 1532, he died at sea in 1595
, (while engaged with Drake in the expedition which proved
fatal to both these great seamen), worn out by years and
toil, and heartbroken by failure and by the captivity of his
son, Sir Richard Hawkins — he who gained the honourable
epithet of 'the complete seaman,' and who lingered for
ten years in a Spanish prison ere he obtained that release
which his father had hoped to achieve.

William Hawkins the elder, both his sons William and

Plymouth^ Devonport, and Stonehouse. 209

John, and his grandson Richard, represented Plymouth
in Parliament, besides filling the leading places in the
municipality ; and while they form the most distinguished
family of Elizabethan Devon, Sir John is unmistakably
the chief worthy of their native Plymouth.

Plymouth was attacked, though not besieged, by the
Western rebels for the restoration of Roman Catholicism
in 1549. The details preserved are but meagre; and from
the fact that the assault was made on the I5th of August,
ten days after the defeat of the insurgents at St. Mary's
Clyst, it must have been either by an independent body
or by a party of the Cornishmen on their retreat. How-
ever that may be, the town records state that they were
driven out of the town on this day, with a loss of
eighty prisoners. They did, however, one notable piece
of damage — * Then was our steeple burnt with all the
townes evydence in the same.' The greater portion,
though not the whole, of the borough muniments were
thus destroyed. The Plymouth men chased their foes
into Cornwall, and brought back an unfortunate wretch
with them, called in the accounts ' the traytour of Corne-
wall,' who was hung, drawn, and quartered on the Hoe —
the central figure of a great public holiday.

The mere recital of the naval expeditions which had
their origin in Plymouth in the reign of Elizabeth, and of
their results, would fill a volume.

It was from Plymouth that Drake sailed in 1572 on his
expedition to Nombre de Dios. When he returned one
Sunday in August in the following year, the news reached
St. Andrew Church while the people were assembled in
worship, and straightway the preacher was deserted and
the good folks ran to the seaside to welcome their hero
home. Still more hearty were the rejoicings when he
returned after ' ploughing up a furrow round the world,'
his vessel laden with great store of 'gold and silver in
blocks' — solid facts which were greatly appreciated by

14

2io History of Devonshire.

the business-like Plymouthians. At the earliest opportunity
he was made mayor ; and a few years later sat in Parlia-
ment for the town.

From Plymouth, too, Drake sailed in 1587 to ' singe
the King of Spain's beard,' while in August, 1595, he and
Hawkins sailed together on the fatal expedition to the
West Indies from which neither returned. Drake is
connected with the modern life of Plymouth, by his con-
struction of the leat or water-course through which the
town is still supplied with water from the river Meavy.
There was a tradition that he did this at his own cost ;
but recent discoveries of long-lost documents show that
the work was initiated by the Corporation, planned by one
Robert Lampen, and carried out at their charges, and
that Drake's relation to the scheme was that of a con-
tractor, paid partly in cash and partly by a lease for sixty-
seven years of mills erected on the line of the new leat
or stream. His memory is drank at the annual inspec-
tion of the waterworks by the Corporation, as that of
the man — to adopt the lines under his portrait in the
Guildhall—

'Who with fresh streams refresht this Towne that first,
Though kist with waters, yet did pine for thirst.'

Plymouth — according to Prince a ' port so famous that
it hath a kind of invitation from the commodiousness
thereof to maritime noble actions ' — was the place whence
Sir Walter Ralegh sent forth his fleets for the settlement
of Virginia, and to which he returned broken-hearted
from his last fatal expedition after the golden city of
Manoa, and was apprehended by 'Judas' Stukely. It
was the port, too, whence Sir Humphry Gilbert sailed on
that voyage to Newfoundland from which he never came
back ; but which has left us the rich legacy of his dying
words, ' Heaven is as near by sea as by land.' Hence in
1589 set forth the expedition under Drake and N orris,

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 211

intended to place Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal.
And hence went the memorable expedition against Cadiz
in 1596, of which Howard and Essex were the chief com-
manders, while the last of the plentiful ' Knights of Cales '
was made in Plymouth streets on the return, ' as the Lords
General came from the sermon !'

But, indeed, in these days there was, to apply the words
of Carew, an ' infinite swarm ' of expeditions of one kind
and another. Now and again large fleets and powerfu!
squadrons set forth, and single ships almost daily ; so
we pass on to the central incident of these stirring times,
the defeat of the Armada.

Twice had Spanish invasion been averted by the astute-
ness and daring of two Plymouth seamen — for Drake, if
Tavistockian by birth, was Plymouthian by adoption.
Once Philip's schemes were counteracted by the pretended
treachery of Sir John Hawkins, who applied the money
paid him by the Spanish King to bring over his fleet in
works of defence. Once again Philip's preparations were
destroyed by Drake harrying one Spanish port after
another. And when the time of trial could no longer be
delayed, again it was Plymouth, and Plymouth men, that
took the foremost place. There are extant some most
graphic descriptions by William Hawkins the second,
who was mayor in the eventful Armada year, of the
repair of vessels by night, torch-lights and cressets flaring
fitfully in a gale of wind. His brother John had worked
for years to bring the royal navy to efficiency ; and the
ships which he collected in Plymouth harbour were ' in
such a condition,' as Mr. Froude says, ' hull, rigging,
spars, and running rope, that they had no match in the
world.' They were the nucleus of a much larger gather-
ing of volunteer craft from many a port throughout the
kingdom, but chiefly from the maritime towns of the
West and South. Of 190 vessels which waited in
Plymouth waters to resist the boastful Spaniard, 34 only

14-2

212

History of Devonshire.

belonged to the Queen. To the volunteer levy, Plymouth
supplied seven ships and a fly-boat. Though nominally
under the command of Howard of Effingham, the two
chief captains were Drake and Hawkins — Drake being
vice-admiral, and in charge of the volunteers ; Hawkins
rear-admiral, with special relations to the royal squadron.

There is a much-cherished tradition that when Captain
Fleming brought the news of the approach of the
Armada, the leading captains were playing bowls, and
that Drake insisted on the set being finished, pithily
remarking, ' There's time enough to play the game out
first, and thrash the Spaniards afterwards.' No con-
temporary authority exists for the tradition, and even the
site of the bowling-green which Plymouth undoubtedly
possessed at that time is disputed ; but the story so
fathers itself, that we may accept it heartily without too
strict an inquiry into pedigree. There was time enough
to play the game, and thrash the Spaniards ; and this,
although contrary winds made it a work of some difficulty
to get the ships to sea.

It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of the
igth of July, 1588, that news of the approach of the
Armada came ; and that night some of the English ships
were warped out of harbour. But the Spanish fleet did
not appear in sight until noon of the following day ; and
then began that great battle of nations which was not to
end until the pride of Spain was hopelessly crushed*
The only man of note who fell on the side of the English
was a Plymouth sailor, Captain Cock, who joined the
fleet in a vessel of his own, captured a Spaniard, and
died in the moment of victory — ' cock of the game,' as
Fuller calls him.

The defeat of the Armada was commemorated until
within living memory in Plymouth, by the ringing of a
merry peal from the bells of the old church of St.
Andrew on the Saturday night preceding the 25th of

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 213

July; and on the Sunday the Corporation used to walk to
church in state.

Charles I. came to Plymouth in September, 1625, for
the purpose of inspecting the troops gathered for the
abortive expedition to Cadiz. It was an unfortunate
business for the town. The fact that the King's servants
received £33 35. 4d. in fees was a very small matter.
The great evil was that the place was crowded with the
impressed soldiery to the number of some 10,000, while
many had to be billeted in the neighbouring villages.
Four hundred men were impressed in Devon — to a large
extent the sort of scum that Falstaff so graphically
describes ; and whether they were good, bad, or in-
different, were so ill looked after by the authorities, that
the greater part were but half clothed, while the want ot
money made them wholly starving. Most miserable was
the condition of soldiery and townsfolk alike ; and right
glad were the Plymouthians when the King had reviewed
his 'ragged regiments,' and set out on his return; and
when the expedition finally set sail. Worse remained
behind : overcrowding and filth begat the plague, and a
third of the population was swept away.

Plymouth formed the centre of the operations for the
settlement of New England and the foundation of the
United States. The ' Plymouth Company,' for the colo-
nization of North America, had its origin in the patents
granted by Elizabeth to Ralegh to settle Virginia. £ 40,000
were spent by him ineffectually ; and five times he sent to
search for the missing colonists whom he had planted at
the ' City of Ralegh ' in 1587, the settlement having been
destroyed, and the survivors adopted, according to tradi-
tion, into the Hatteras tribe. His failures led, howevei,
to other attempts, and eventually to the incorporation by
James I. of two companies — the London Company for
the colonization of ' South Virginia,' and the Plymouth
Company for the colonization of ' North Virginia ' —

214 History of Devonshire.

Virginia being used as a general term for the North
American coast. The London Company settled James-
town in 1607 ; the attempt of the Plymouth Company to
plant a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec failed, and
thenceforward its members confined themselves to trading
and fishing. In 1620, however, a new charter was granted
them, whereby the Duke of Lennox, the Marquis of
Buckingham, the Earls of Arundel and Warwick, Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, and thirty-four others, were incorpo-
rated as ' the first modern and present Council established
at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting,
ruling, and governing of New England in America.' The
grant gave the patentees all property and control over all
North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between
the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude. The ruling
spirit of this second organization was Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, long Governor of Plymouth and connected with
the Gorges of St. Bude. The monopoly was too huge for
realization. The pretensions of the patentees were laughed
to scorn and ignored. Their vast designs dwindled into a
scramble for individual interests and proprietorships ; and
the real settlement of New England was effected with-
out their knowledge or intervention. The ' Council of
Plymouth ' does not therefore fill a very important place
in history. The only really notable thing it did was to
grant the charter of Massachusetts, which proved so
troublesome a child, that in 1635 the Council surrendered
their charter, its members first passing particular patents
to themselves * of such parts along the sea-coast as might
be sufficient for them.' Gorges interpreted this liberally,
for he appropriated what is now Maine; and his comrade,
Mason, New Hampshire. The dissolution of the Company
was really an incident in the earlier phase of the conflict
between Charles and his Parliament — Massachusetts being
strongly Puritan and welcoming the Puritanically dis-
affected; and the leaders of the Company being Royalists

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 215

and Episcopalians, absolutists by charter, and above all
things mindful of the duty of strictly attending to their
own pockets. As Sir Edward Coke told Gorges to his
face, ' the ends of private gain were concealed under
cover of planting a colony.'

Before the Plymouth Company had begun its later
operation, ' on the 6th day of September, 1620, thirteen
years after the first colonization of Virginia, two months
before the concession of the grand charter of Plymouth,
without any warrant from the sovereign of England,
without any useful charter from a - corporate body, the
passengers in the Mayflower set sail from the waters of
Plymouth Sound for a new world.' Bound for the Hudson,
in the territory of the London Company, they landed,
Nov. 9, in the domains of the Plymouth Association, and
there founded New Plymouth, the first permanent settle-
ment in New England. The Huguenots were then at
Port Royal or Annapolis (founded 1604), the London
Company at Jamestown (1607), the Dutch at New York
(1614). It is a singular coincidence, if nothing more,
that the spot where the Pilgrims landed is called Plymouth
in 1616, in Smith's map of New England. Probably it
had therefore been early frequented by Plymouth ships.
Whether the Pilgrims continued the old name or gave it
anew cannot now be ascertained.

A singular error, and one which it seems almost im-
possible to overtake, has sprung from the departure of the
Pilgrim Fathers from Plymouth. It has been again and
again either stated or assumed that the little band of the
Mayflower were, if not Plymouth people, at least Devonians.
There is, however, not the least evidence that any one of
them belonged to the West of England, and the amplest
proof that the great majority did not. Nevertheless some
Plymouth and Devonshire men did play an important part
in the work of actual settlement. Gorges had a planta-
tion on the island of Mohegan in 1621 or 1622, which

2I6 History of Devonshire.

was afterwards bought by Abraham Jennings, a Plymouth
merchant. Moses Goodyear, son-in-law of Jennings, and
Robert Trelawny, afterwards member for the town, two
other Plymouth merchants, laid the foundation of the
town of Portland ; and of actual Plymouth settlers we
have John Winter, long Trelawny's agent, and George
Cleeves, a man of great note in the new country, and as
staunch a Republican as Trelawny was a Royalist.

Massachusetts, moreover, was largely peopled from
Devon and Cornwall ; and, although originating in Dor-
chester, had important connections with Plymouth. Thus
in 1630 a number of intending emigrants to Massachusetts
met in the Hospital of the Poor's Portion at Plymouth,
a recent Puritan foundation, and there formed a Congre-
gational church under ' Master John Warham, a famous
preacher of Exeter, and Master John Maverick.' A ship
which sailed from Plymouth in 1622 took over eighty
emigrants. In Western Maine and the lower districts of
Massachusetts, the population still largely retains the
characteristics of the men of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset,
and Dorset, and is spoken of as ' the pure English race.'
' The importation in the first place was made by English
proprietors, who sent the farmers, mechanics, and ad-
venturers, who lived in and about Devonshire, to cultivate
and improve their large arid vacant grants.' Massachusetts
generally, however, drew from a wider field. One Roger
Clap, of Salcombe, claims notice, as having become captain
of Boston Castle.

Since the siege of Exeter by the Conqueror, there has
been no similar event in the West of equal importance
to the siege of Plymouth by the Cavaliers. It marks an
epoch of the first importance in national as well as local
history. It was the longest and fiercest siege of these
times, and it was endured successfully to the end. After
the surrender of the army of Essex in 1644, Plymouth
was the only place that remained true to the Parliament

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 217

in the entire Western Peninsula ; and had the Royalist
soldiery employed in besieging it been set free by its
capture, it is certain that the struggle between the two
parties would have been greatly protracted. It is even
possible it might have had another issue. Plymouth was
the key to a good deal more than the fortunes of Devon
and Cornwall.

Although it had elected a staunch Royalist in Robert
Trelawny to the Long Parliament, the town declared on
the popular side the moment there was a prospect of
war. As early as November, 1642, such preparations had
been made by the mayor, Philip Francis, that the earthen
line, ' weak and irregular,' cast up about the town under
his directions, enabled Colonel Ruthen, or Ruthven, to
repulse an attack in force by Sir Ralph Hopton. Retiring
to Modbury, the Royalists were routed ; and this success
led to Ruthven's marching into Cornwall, to carry the
war into the enemy's country, and to his utter defeat in
turn by Hopton at the battle of Bradock Down. This
was on the igth of January. In the following month,
Hopton besieged Plymouth again, this time in much
greater force ; and having with him such distinguished
Royalist leaders as Sir Bevil Grenville, Sir Nicholas
Slanning, Colonel Trevanion, and Lord Mohun. He was
again compelled to retire, however, by a second defeat at
Modbury, on which the Parliamentary troops of the
county had concentrated ; and efforts were made, but
unavailingly, to arrange a treaty of peace for Devon and
Cornwall, and let the rest of the kingdom fight the
quarrel out for themselves. For a while there followed a
petty border warfare between Royalist Cornwall and
Roundhead Devon, which was brought to a sudden close
by the defeat of the Earl of Stamford at Stratton, and
by the consequent eastward expedition of the Cornish-
men, which ended so fatally for their leaders — Grenville
being killed at Lansdowne, Trevanion and Slanning at

218 History of Devonshire.

Bristol, and Sidney Godolphin at Chagford. Plymouth
took advantage of this period of comparative peace to
strengthen its defences.

They were soon needed. In August, 1643, the town
was thoroughly blockaded by Colonel Digby, who did his
work so well that no provisions could be brought in.
Moreover, Sir Alexander Carew, who held command of
the fort and island, the chief defences of the port, was
detected in treaty for their surrender, sent to London,
and subsequently executed. Prince Maurice took Exeter
on the 4th of September, and marched on to reduce
Plymouth. Stopping on his road to take Dartmouth,
after the method of old-fashioned warfare, the Parliament
found time to throw some 500 soldiers into Plymouth,
under Colonel Wardlaw, who proved a commander of
decision, and against whom Maurice, when he did arrive,
found it hopeless to contend. The only advantage the
Cavaliers gained was the capture, after three weeks' in-
dependent leaguer, of an outlying and, as it proved, useless
work called ' Mount Stamford.' Maurice was incessant
in his efforts to reduce the obstinate town, for well-nigh
two months making almost daily assaults ; and on
Sunday, the 3rd of December, all but succeeded. The
stoutness of the defence, however, was too much for him.
The Cavaliers, some of whom had pushed on to within
pistol-shot of the walls, were routed to the cry of * God
with us !' Hence for many a long year the bells of St.
Andrew rang in memory of the * Sabbath-day fight ;' and
sermons were preached, on the foundation of a pious
Puritan widow, to hold the deliverance in lasting remem-
brance. The town motto, ' Turris fortissima est nomen
Jehova I' of which Plymouth is as proud as Exeter of its
' Semper fidelis '—dates from this period.

Maurice raised the siege on Christmas Day, prompted
thereto partly by the appearance among his troops of the
fatal ' camp disease ;' but Digby continued the blockade,

Plymouth, Devonport, and Slonehouse. 219

until placed Jwrs de combat by a rapier-wound in the eye.
He was succeeded by Sir Richard Grenville. In like
manner, Colonel Wardlaw, worn out, was followed for a
short time in command of the garrison by Colonel Gould.
The latter died early in 1644 ; and then came Colonel
Martin, a most energetic officer, who again was followed,
on his death in harness, by Colonel Kerr.

The march of Essex into the West caused the siege to
be raised ; but four days after the surrender of his forces
at Boconnoc, the King himself summoned Plymouth,
and on the loth of September sat down before the town
with a gallant armament 15,000 strong. Lord Robartes,
who had escaped with Essex and a few others in a boat
from Fowey to Plymouth, was appointed Governor on the
following day, on which the royal troops made a desperate
but unavailing assault. Neither by persuasion, threats,
nor force could Charles win his way within the stubborn
town, and accordingly he and Maurice speedily marched
off, leaving the conduct of the blockade once more in the
hands of Grenville. There was not much righting at
Plymouth itself during the remainder of 1644 ; but 1645
was a very active year, and there is a valuable con-
temporary record of its proceedings, so far as they have
a financial bearing, in the accounts of the Committee of
Defence, yet in the possession of the Plymouth Corpora-
tion. This committee held the governorship in commis-
sion when Robartes was removed by the Self-Denying
Ordinance, Colonel Kerr having chief military command.

The most desperate attempt made by Grenville was in
January, 1645. He appears at first to have captured
three of the great outworks, and to have made his footing
good for a while in one. His attack was in force along
the line ; but when he had been repulsed at all points,
save the scene of his temporary success, the captured
work was stormed from every quarter by the Plymouth
men and taken, and all who were within killed or made

22O History of Devonshire.

prisoners. Probably nearly a fourth of Grenville's whole
force of 6,000 men was killed, wounded, or captured.
Another fight at Fort Stamford, where the garrison also
had the advantage, brought the siege practically to an
end. True, it continued in name, after Grenville's defeat,
first under Sir John Berkeley, and then under General
Digby; but towards the close of the year we find the
garrison assuming the offensive, taking St. Budeaux
Church, which had been turned into a Cavalier garrison,
after an hour and a half's hard fighting, in December ;
surprising Kinterbury ; and storming Saltash and Buck-
land Abbey. On the 28th of January, 1646, the Royalists
decamped in such a hurry at the advance of Fairfax, that
they left guns, arms, and ammunition behind. The last
Cavalier garrisons in the neighbourhood were Mount
Edgcumbe, which had been held most gallantly by
Colonel Edgcumbe against repeated attacks, and which,
only when all hope was lost, surrendered to Colonel
Hammond ; and Ince House, which resisted until the
2gth of March. Then the ' scorn ' was taken out of the
Cavaliers who held it, by the planting in position of some
big guns.

The siege cost the town dear, though the battle had
been won. During the three years that it lasted the
parish registers record the deaths of about 1,000 soldiers,
and of 2,000 of the townsfolk beyond the death-rate
of that time. These figures do not, however, include the
losses to the garrison of those who were buried where
they fell ; nor those of the besiegers, whether in the field
or by the still more fatal ' camp disease.' There were many
occasions when more than 100 fell in an assault ; one, at
least, when the loss was over 300. The population of
Plymouth at this date did not exceed 7,000 ; the deaths
due to the siege approximated at least 8,000. In three
years, therefore, a number greater than the population of
the town was swept away. The whole history of the

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stanekause. 221

Civil War fails to supply a parallel. Moreover, the trade
of the town was ruined, and scores of families reduced to
the greatest distress and misery. As a partial relief the
Plymouth duties were for a while taken off.

It was the undaunted spirit the town had shown that
led Charles II. to prepare for possible eventualities by
erecting the citadel — one of the finest specimens of
seventeenth-century fortification now extant in England
— upon Plymouth Hoe. And it was the merest irony of
Fate that led to the revival of the old temper under
James, and that caused Plymouth to be the first munici-
pality in the kingdom to declare for William of Orange,
and this very citadel to be the first stronghold put into
his hands by its Governor, the Earl of Bath.

For something like 200 years — ever since, in fact, the
waters of the Tamar were chosen as the site of a royal
arsenal — Plymouth has mingled the characteristics of war
and trade, though at times one has predominated and
then the other. It was chiefly in consequence of the
trading importance of the port that first Winstanley's
(1696), then Rudyerd's (1706), Smeaton's (1756), and
lastly, Douglass's (1882) lighthouses were erected in turn
upon the Eddystone Reef, which lies a few miles off the
entrance of Plymouth Sound. The construction of the
great breakwater (1812-41) which stretches for a mile
across the roadstead between the opposite heights of
Maker and of Staddon, was, however, carried out for the
express purpose of protecting the vessels of the fleet.
And the forts which line the shores of the harbour, and
form a cincture round the whole of the three towns, also
bore reference to the public works, and not to any private
interests. So absorbed, however, did the town become in
privateering in the days of the great French war, that for
the time almost all legitimate trade died out, and it
required years of untiring energy to recover lost ground.
One of the first steps taken was the formation of what is

222 History of Devonshire.

now the oldest Chamber of Commerce in the kingdom ; and
since then wharves a»nd piers have been formed and docks
built, and in addition to a good foreign and large coasting
trade, Plymouth has become one of the chief mail ports
in the kingdom. The growth of the town in the present
century has been very rapid. The population is more
than five times what it was in 1801 ; and in the last forty
years it has considerably more than doubled. Growth has
been accompanied by reconstruction, and there is very little
left to mark the age of the community save the fine old
mother church of St. Andrew, close by which now stands
the noblest pile of municipal buildings in the West of
England. The windows of the great hall are filled with
stained glass illustrating the richly storied past of the
old town ; and among the prized possessions of the Cor-
poration is an old portrait of Drake, placed in the ancient
Guildhall not many years after his death. Many local
antiquities of interest are preserved in the Museum of the
Plymouth Institution, including those of Keltic date.

Plymouth has been very rich in worthies. The
Hawkinses have been already named. Sir Thomas
Edmonds, son of the ' customer ' at Plymouth (1562-1639)
became the ambassador for James I. to Brussels and
Paris, and subsequently Comptroller of the Household.
John Quick, a celebrated Puritan divine (died 1706), and
Joseph Glanvill, Prebendary of Worcester, author of
4 Saducismus Triumphatus ' (already noted), were born at
Plymouth in 1636. It was likewise the birthplace
of Dr. James Yonge (1647-1721), an early member of the
Royal Society; of Bryant the Mythologist (1715-1804),
and of Kitto (1804-1854), the deaf author.

William Elford Leach, Curator of the British Museum,
the greatest zoologist Devonshire has produced, was born
at Plymouth in 1790, and died in 1836. A year later was
born Sir William Snow Harris (died 1867), tne inventor
of the system of applying lightning-conductors to ships ;

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 223

and another Plymouth electrician, Jonathan Hearder
(1810-76), was blind nearly all through his scientific career.
But it is in connection with Art that the chief personal
excellence of modern Plymouth has been reached. Here
was born (1746-1831) James Northcote, R.A., pupil and
biographer of Reynolds, himself a native of what is now a
Plymouth suburb. Here Samuel Prout (1783-1852), the
most distinguished water-colour artist of the West, and
in his peculiar gifts unrivalled in the kingdom. Here the
unfortunate Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846), the
true founder of Schools of Art ; here Samuel Hart, R.A.
(1806-1881), Professor of Painting, and Librarian of the
Royal Academy. And here also first saw the light Sir
Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1866), President of the
Royal Academy, and at the time of his death Director of
the National Gallery. His first great work was a painting
of Buonaparte at the gangway of the Belter ophon in
Plymouth Sound, now in the possession of Lord Clinton.

The joint history of the triple community of Plymouth,
Devonport, and Stonehouse, has some curious features.
In name Stonehouse, the smallest of the ' three towns '
is the oldest. Devonport is the youngest, but under its
earliest designation of Stoke was by far the most im-
portant member of the triad, as it first appears in history
in the pages of ' Domesday.' It was then the property of
Robert of Albemarle, whose name is still preserved in the
title of the parish — Stoke Damerel — and had a population
of twenty-five against the seven of Sutton and the one
villein who occupied Stanehvs under Robert the Bastard.
While hamlets were developing into the ville of Sutton,
and that into the burgh of Plymouth, and while the
building of ' stane and lime ' which named the ancient
manor of Stonehouse was growing into a walled town,
Stoke Damerel continued a mere village. It passed from
Damerells to Courtenays, Kemiells, Branscombes, and

224 History of Devonshire.

Britts, until it came to the Wises, and Sir Thomas Wise
signalized his ownership by building a stately mansion on
the craggy headland opposite the domain of the Edgcumbes,
and calling it, with that imitation which is the sincerest
flattery, ' Mount Wise.' All but the name has long passed
into oblivion, and cannon frown and soldiers dwell where
the manor-house once stood. In 1667 Stoke was bought
by Sir William Morice, Secretary of State to Charles II.,
and some time member for Plymouth ; and early in the
last century passed to its present owners, the St. Aubyns,
by the marriage of Sir John St. Aubyn to Catherine,
coheiress of the Morice family. As the whole town and
parish, with a few unimportant exceptions, belongs to the
St. Aubyns, it is now by far the most valuable manor in
the West of England.

Devonport, as a town, dates only from the reign of
William III. Though Plymouth had so long been a naval
port of resort of the first rank, it had few Government
establishments and no dockyard. Woolwich, Deptford,
and Portsmouth yards go back to the reign of Henry VIII. ;
and Chatham was founded under Elizabeth. Charles II.
established Sheerness, and is credited with the intention
of creating a dockyard at Devonport, the advantages
of the harbour there having been recognised among
others by Ralegh. Until 1690, however, the royal ships
at Plymouth were wholly dependent upon the accom-
modation of private yards. William of Orange saw the
need of remedying this state of things soon after he came
to the throne, for plans for a ' dock in the Hamoaze ' were
prepared in 1689 ; and in the following year a little creek
was utilized in the construction of the first basin and
dock. This was the germ from which has grown the
great naval arsenal of the West, the works of which now
all but monopolize, in one form or another, the water-
side for miles along the eastern shores of the Tamar
estuary.

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 225

Plymouth Dock was the original name of the new town ;
and at first officers and artisans alike were accustomed to
live in Plymouth and go to and fro their work daily. The
first dockyard was completed in 1693; but it was not
until 1700 that the first private house of the new town
was erected, a rough wooden structure at the landing-
place at North Corner, which became the principal centre
whence the houses spread. There are still in this locality
a few of the original dwellings left — buildings curiously
compounded to all appearance of the cottage and the
cabin, the self- instructed architects being at times
singularly successful in transferring to the shore some of
the leading characteristics of the stern quarters of the old
Dutch-built men-of-war.

As war followed war, so the dockyard extended ; and as
the dockyard extended, so the town grew; until, about
the middle of the last century, ' the Dock ' was enclosed by
ditch and rampart, long since improved out of existence
in favour of more massive works, in their turn so out-
grown as to be practically useless. The earliest return of
the population is for the year 1733, when it was 3,361,
about half that of Plymouth. Fifty years later it was
equal to that of the elder town ; and by the beginning of
the century was largely in advance, having a population
of 23,747 to the 16,040 of Plymouth and the 3,407 of
Stonehouse. While war lasted Devonport grew more
rapidly than Plymouth, the natural trade of which was
almost wholly destroyed or given up for privateer-
ing. But at length commerce asserted its superiority;
and the census of 1841 showed Plymouth once more in
advance, with a preponderance which it has since in-
creasingly maintained, active as the development of the
Government works has from time to time been.

Devonport was one of the large centres of population
enfranchised by the Reiorm Bill of 1832, when it and Stone-
house were thrown together to make one constituency. It

15

226 History of Devonshire.

was incorporated as a municipality in 1837, having been
previously governed by a body of Commissioners operating
under a local Act. The name was changed from Plymouth
Dock to Devonport in 1824.

Devonport now consists of the old town 'within the
lines ;' of the ancient village of Stoke, which has developed
into a very handsome residential suburb — the tower of
the mother church being the one antiquity the place can
boast ; and of the great and growing annexe of Morice
Town or New Passage, which has enormously developed
since the commencement of the Keyham Steamyard in
1844. Keyham was the original * manor-place ' of the
Wises and their predecessors. Beyond the Keyham Yard
are now Seamen's Barracks ; and farther up the river
towards Saltash the Bull Point and Kinterbury Powder
Works and Magazines. The villages of Millbrook and
Torpoint, and to a certain extent the town of Saltash
also, on the Cornish side of the Tamar, are so far suburbs
of Devonport that they are partially inhabited by men
employed in the Government establishments.

Of the few notable points in the local history, the
blowing up in 1796 of the Amphion in harbour, when
200 lives were lost, is one of the most memorable ; and in
1840 occurred the great fire in the dockyard, when the
Talavera and Minden were burnt, and large quantities of
valuable stores and naval antiquities.

Stonehouse has a history, though never yet thoroughly
worked out. The township in legal documents is called
East Stonehouse, by way of distinction from a hamlet on
the opposite side of Hamoaze at Mount Edgcumbe, named
West Stonehouse, said to have been burnt by the French
in one of their raids. Carew, writing at the end of the
sixteenth century, notes that ' certaine old ruines, yet
remaining, continue the neighbours' report.' It stood
near the edge of the water at what is now called Cremyll.

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 227

There is no evidence to show whether West Stonehouse
was included in the manor of Stonehouse held by Robert
the Bastard at the date of the compilation of ' Domesday.'
Probably it was not, and East Stonehouse was really the
elder town ; but Devon then, and until recently, included
Mount Edgcumbe and adjacent lands west of the Tamar.
After the Bastards the manor came to a family named
thence of Stonehouse, and from them it passed by
marriage to the Durnfords, whose heiress in turn carried
it to its present possessors, the Edgcumbes. Apart from
the building whose solid character gave the manor its
name, there is little evidence, until Stonehouse came into
the hands of the Durnfords, that it consisted of more
than the castellated mansion of its lords, with some build-
ings of a monastic character, doubtfully connected with
the great Priory of Plympton. The Durnfords, however,
did their best to foster their infant town ; and James
Durnford, as noted, brought down upon him the Abbot of
Buckland, as lord of the hundred of Roborough, by setting
up a pillory and tumbrel at ' Estonhouse ' and holding
courts there, wherefore, 26th Henry VI., it was ordered
that the pillory and tumbrel should be ' deposed, de-
stroyed, and removed,' that no courts should be held by
Durnford which interfered with the abbot's view of frank-
pledge, and no hindrance put to the execution of the
abbot's precepts or the action of his bailiffs, etc., in the
manor. At this time, and long afterwards, Stonehouse
to some extent came under the jurisdiction of Plymouth.
It formed part of the very extensive ancient parish of St.
Andrew (to which it is yet appendant by patronage), and
there are records of inquests being held there by a Plymouth
coroner, though it never fell within the municipal boundary.
Stonehouse was little more than a fishing village from
the time of the Durnfords until the reign of Henry VIII. ,
when it grew more rapidly ; so that early in the seventeenth
century, Sir William Pole describes it as a 'convenient

15—2

228 History of Devonshire.

big town, well inhabited.' The first trace of any corporate
authority known to exist is in a deed of the 36th of
Elizabeth, which refers to the government of the town
being in the hands of the lord, Peter Edgcumbe, Esquire,
under rules and directions made with 'the consent &
ffrancke agremt of xij. discrete & able psons of &
wlhin the said Towne and liberties.' This would be
something in the nature of a select vestry; and the
government of the township continued strictly parochial
until the establishment of a Local Board of Health,
although it has a population of some 15,000.

The ecclesiastical connection of Stonehouse with
Plymouth probably originated with the extensive rights
exercised by the Plympton Priory, which was not only
liberally endowed by the Valletorts, but received from
' John de Stanhurst ' a grant of free fishery ' per totam
terram meam.' Though this deed is not dated, it cannot
be later than Henry I. ; for in the latter part of the
twelfth century the fishery is mentioned in a Valletort
grant as an ancient right. A Joel of Stonehouse was
living there in the reign of Henry III.

The present parish church, dedicated to St. George,
replaced in the last century an ancient chapel dedicated
to St. Lawrence, the existence of which it is said can be
followed back to 1472. St. George, however, appears to
have a good claim to the dedication ; for a deed, dated
i2th Henry VII., mentions John Melett and Laurence
Serle as ' custod capell sci georgii martii de Est Stone-
house ;' and there is no trace of more than one ancient
chapel in the town. Stonehouse became the settlement
of a body of Huguenot refugees after the Revocation 01
the Edict of Nantes ; and for several years the chapel
was used jointly by the French and English inhabitants.
Eventually the former obtained a meeting-place of their
own, and continued to meet there until 1810, when they
became finally absorbed, as the Huguenots of Plymouth

Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. 229

had been three years earlier, in the native population.
One of the refugees — Duval — has left his name to the
headland of Devil's Point.

There is good proof that Stonehouse was a place of
some importance in the closing years of the sixteenth
century, from the fact that an Act of Parliament was
obtained to bring into the town a supply of fresh water,
the needs of the shipping being alleged as a leading
cause. A leat, or water-course, was accordingly made,
though it did not answer the end designed. There appears
then to have been some falling off. Stonehouse had a
Royalist lord in Colonel Edgcumbe, and a tolerably
numerous Roundhead population. Its interest was there-
fore very equally divided ; and it took no active part in
the great struggle. On one side lay Plymouth, garrisoned
for the Parliament — its exterior lines of defence, indeed,
included Stonehouse ; on the other was Mount Edgcumbe,
held for the King. Stonehouse must ha\e had walls of
some kind, for it had barrier-gates until 1770 ; but it was
not a place of any strength, and held wisely neutral.
Hence, doubtless, its choice in 1643 as the place of
meeting of the negociants of the fruitless treaty of peace
between Devon and Cornwall.

Like Devonport, Stonehouse has been to a large extent
absorbed by the action of the Government, which in one
iorm or another occupies the larger proportion of its
water-side. Here the Naval Hospital, fronting the
Military Hospital at Devonport on the other side of a
creek ; there the Royal William Victualling Office, the
finest pile of buildings devoted to victualling purposes in
the country ; and there again forts and barracks, the
latter the headquarters of a division 01 Royal Marines.
What shipping-trade continues is carried on in Stone-
house Pool, on the western shores of which Devonport is
attempting to utilize for commercial purposes the only
available piece of foreshore that the Government estab-
lishments have left free.

CHAPTER XXV.

PLYMPTON.

PLYMPTON has all the marks of a very ancient settlement.
When it was founded the waters of what is now known
as the Laira stretched up the valley to its site, and im-
mediately above the farthest tidal reach were reared the
earthworks which now bear the ruins of the fortress of
the Redverses, but which were certainly held by the Kelt,
possibly adopted by the Roman, and in turn extended
and strengthened by the Saxon, ere the Norman made it
the centre of his power in the wide district around.
Traces of this history may yet be read in the castle and
its surroundings.

In all probability Plympton takes name from its ancient
position at the head of the estuary of what is now known
as the Plym, or, as these estuarine creeks are commonly
called in the locality, lake — pen lin in the Western Keltic
tongue, contracted, as in other instances in Cornwall, into
plin, the form which the first syllable takes in its earliest
occurrence in ' Domesday ' — Plintona. Plymouth, at the
lower end of the estuary, did not assume that appellation
until the original meaning of the word had long been lost ;
and the consequence appears to have been a curious trans-
ference of names. The modern Plym is made up of two
rivers, the Mew or Meavy, and what in later days has
been called the Cad, but through the Middle Ages was
known as the Plym. The old form of Meavy is Mewi,

Plympton. 231

and this in the Kornu-Keltic would mean ' greater water.'
There is no reasonable doubt that Laira — formerly Lary
— the name now applied to the estuary, which means the
' lesser water ' — is the original name of the second
tributary, and that the estuary and the river — the Plym
and the Lary — have somehow exchanged titles. There is
a bridge over the Plym called Cadover, a corruption of coed
weorthig — the ' farm-place in the wood,' and the second
change of name from Plym to Cad arose from the ' over '
being held to imply that the bridge crossed the Cad.
The Plym is now commonly understood of the rivers
between their junction and the estuary.

Failing such an explanation, many are the hypotheses
that have been advanced to account for the fact that the
* ton ' of the Plym is not, and never was, upon the river
now known by that name, and is, indeed, nearly two miles
distant, though quite as great a distance from the estuary.
It is, however, well within historic times that the tide
flowed up to the walls of the castle, and that Plympton
stood literally, as well as nominally, at the * head of the
lake.' Moreover, throughout the Middle Ages the chief
traffic between Plymouth and the great Priory of Plympton
was by boat. This was the route adopted by the Black
Prince at his visits to the West, when the Priory afforded
him entertainment. A record of acts done by him as
Duke of Cornwall at Plymouth and Plympton, in 1362, is
still in the possession of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe ;
and the house seems to have become somewhat im-
poverished by the many claims on its hospitality caused
by its contiguity to the port of Plymouth.

At the compilation of ' Domesday ' Plintona was the
chief centre of population for many miles. There is,
therefore, much show of reason for the appearance here
also of the ubiquitous couplet :

' Plympton was a borough town
When Plymouth was a furzy down.'

232 History of Devonshire.

William held it in succession to the Confessor, and had
an enumerated population of twenty-three within his
demesne ; while there were twelve villeins in the portion
held by the canons. Though all was included in one
entry, the germs of the division thus already existed
which in later years made the territory of the Priory the
parish of Plympton St. Mary, and the lands of the secular
lord the Borough of Plympton Erie (from its owners), or
Plympton St. Maurice, from the early patron saint of its
church, in later years assigned to St. Thomas of Canter-
bury.

The remains of Plympton Castle consist of a mound

surmounted by the ruins of a shell keep, which rises at

the eastern end of a rectangular enclosure or base court.

The earthworks are in excellent preservation, and there

are traces of exterior defences. The Norman masonry is

simple, and with no special features of interest save the

occurrence of the cavities in the walls, which show the

original places of the beams inserted to strengthen and

support the stonework upon the doubtful foundation of

the mound. It is probable that the Norman castle was,

in great part, if not wholly, built by Richard de Redvers,

Earl of Devon, to whom Henry I. granted the honour

and castle. It was practically demolished in the ensuing

reign under his son, Baldwin, who had espoused the

cause of Matilda against Stephen, but whose garrison at

Plympton surrendered without striking a blow. This was

the only occasion on which Plympton Castle has figured

in history, and from that day to this as a fortalice it has

been a mere ruin ; though Plympton was a station of the

Cavaliers at the siege of Plymouth. The honour oi

Plympton — of which were held 120 knights' fees — followed

the fortunes of the great house to which it belonged.

It passed from the Redverses to the Courtenays, and

continued in the latter, with the exception of the

intervals when that powerful family lay under royal dis-

Plympton. 233

pleasure, until the death of Lord Edward Courtenay, in
1566. The property was then scattered among various
families, but was subsequently to a large extent brought
together again by purchase by the Earls of Morley ; and
in them the lordship of the castle and manor is now
vested.

The Parkers, originally of North Molton, acquired by
their marriage with the heiress of Mayhew, temp. Eliza-
beth, the manor of Boringdon, and thenceforward made
it their chief residence, until in 1712 they purchased
Saltram, once the seat and residence of Sir James Bagge,
the creature of Buckingham, and the ' bottomless bagge '
of the patriot Eliot. The Parkers were raised to the
peerage in 1774, as Barons Boringdon ; and in 1815 ad-
vanced to be Viscounts Boringdon and Earls of Morley.
Saltram House was rebuilt by them early in the last
century, and was long reported the largest mansion in
the county.

Plympton Priory was one of the most ancient and
notable religious houses in Devon. The canons who held
two hides of the Plintona manor under William, were the
successors of men who had been seated there in all
probability for a longer period than any other religious in
Devon outside Exeter. There is yet extant a copy of a
Saxon document of reasonable authenticity, dated 904,
which records a grant by Eadweard the Elder to Asser,
Bishop of Sherborne, and the convent there, of twelve
manors, by way of exchange for the monastery which in
the Saxon tongue is called * Plymentun.' The college
consisted of a dean and four canons ; and when they
refused to give up their wives, or, as Leland said, ' wold
not leve their concubines,' it was suppressed by Bishop
Warelwast, nephew of the Conqueror, in 1121. In its
stead he founded what afterwards became the great
Augustinian Priory o. St. Peter and St. Paul, which was
so enriched with liberal gifts by the Redverses and

234 History of Devonshire.

Valletorts and other benefactors, that at the Dissolution
it was the wealthiest house in the West, with revenues
valued at £912 123. 8d. The magnificent Priory Church,
where Warelwast and some of the Courtenays were
buried, adjoined the parish church of St. Mary ; and a
few traces yet remain. Of the domestic buildings all
that is left is the refectory, converted into a dwelling
which has a Norman crypt.

The priors, as already stated, were lords of a portion of
Plymouth in its infancy, and their part of the ancient
manor of Sutton was then called Sutton Prior. Before
that town could be incorporated, their consent had to be
obtained; and the terms were finally settled at an in-
quisition held in the nave of the Priory Church in 1441, a
fee farm rent of £41 being then deemed an adequate
compensation. The Priory had two appendant cells — one,
Marisco, near Exeter ; and the other at St. Anthony in
Roseland, Cornwall. The site has been in the Champer-
nownes, Strodes, and Fowneses.

Plympton Erie was chartered by its feudal lords.
Baldwin de 'Redvers made it a borough town, and granted
the burgesses its market and fairs in March, 1241. These
were confirmed in 1284. Municipal functions were re-
tained until 1859, when, in consequence of the charter
conferring no exclusive jurisdiction as against the county,
it was allowed to lapse. As a Parliamentary borough
Plympton dated from 23rd Edward L, and it was con-
tinuously represented until the fatal 1832. Few towns in
Devon have had more distinguished representatives.
Serjeant Hele sat for the borough under Elizabeth.
Many of the Strode family, whose ancestral seat of
Newnham is close by, were returned at various times ;
and among them that William Strode who was one of
the famous 'five members.' Strange that a town of such
marked Puritan proclivities should also have chosen such
a staunch Royalist as Sir Nicholas Slanning. Sir George

Plympton. 235

Treby, the judge, and Sir John Maynard, were other
notable members ; and, most notable of all, in 1685, Sir
Christopher Wren became a ' burgess ' of Plympton. In
later days, the most prominent representative was Lord
Castlereagh. When he sat, however, Plympton had
long been a purely nomination borough ; one half of the
representation belonging to the Trebys, and the other
half to the Edgcumbes.

Quaint as many of the surroundings of Plympton Erie
still are, chief interest centres in the comparatively
modern and modernized Grammar School. Founded
from the bequest of the great educational benefactor of
Devon, Elize, or Elizeus, Hele, and erected in 1644, here
was born, July 16, 1723, while his father, the Rev. Samuel
Reynolds, was head-master, the greatest English portrait-
painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. The old dwelling
has given place to a modern edifice ; but the school and
its quaint cloister still remain — the school in which not
only Reynolds, but Northcote was educated, which was
the first school, moreover, of another President of the
Royal Academy, Sir C. L. Eastlake, and of which
Benjamin Robert Haydon was ' head-boy ' in 1801. No
school in England holds such a relation to Art, therefore,
as the ancient Grammar School of Plympton. Sir Joshua
never forgot his native town, and to the last kept up
kindly relations. Nor was he by any means without
honour in his own country. His townsmen were proud
of him, and did him what respect lay in their power,
electing him in 1773 their mayor ! On this occasion he
gave the town his portrait, painted by himself; and it
hung in the Guildhall until 1832, when the thrifty Cor-
poration, to their lasting disgrace, sold it to the Earl of
Egremont for £150.

Of the families connected with Plympton and its neigh-
bourhood, the Parkers have already been noted. The
Strodes oi Newnham, lately extinct in the male line,

236 History of Devonshire.

were seated at Strode, in Ermington, as early as the
reign of Henry III. Newnham was acquired by
marriage with a coheiress of the Newnhams, temp.
Henry IV. Richard and William Strode, the two most
notable members of the family, have been already
mentioned. Dr. William Strode, poet and divine, died in
1644.

The Woollcombes, who have been seated at Hemerdon
for several generations, in the reign of Elizabeth lived on
the adjoining estate of Challonsleigh. Chaddlewood was
long in the extinct family of Snelling (now in Soltau
Symons), and Beechwood is the seat of Lord Seaton.

The adjacent parish of Brixton is associated with such
old family names as Brixton, Calmady, Coplestone,
Fortescue, Maynard, Drake, Pollexfen, and Hele ; but its
chief claim to notice here is as the residence of that
most worthy member of the wide-spreading family of
Hele — Elize Hele, of Wollaton, who bequeathed in 1635
the manor of Brixton Reigny and all his estates to
charitable uses, and thus became the great school
founder of his native county.

It is a question whether the Heles really sprung from
Hele near Bradninch, or Hele in Cornwood, where they
can certainly be traced to the reign of Richard II. ; but
the latter is probably a younger branch. Cornwood,
noted in ' Domesday ' as possessing three wild horses —
ancestors, no doubt, of the native breed of Dartmoor
ponies — is connected with several distinguished families.
Chief among these was that of Ralegh, which obtained
Fardell by marriage with the heiress of Newton. At this
ancient mansion, now a farm-house, Wymond Ralegh,
grandfather of Sir Walter Ralegh, lived ; and here no
doubt Walter, the father, was born. There is a baseless
tradition that it was also the birthplace of the great Sir
Walter himself. That, however, was at East Hayes.

Plympton. 237

Slade, with its fine hall, once the seat of the family of
that name, has long been the residence of the Spurrells,
and their descendants, the Podes. Blachford is the seat
of Lord Blachford, whose ancestors were sometime lead-
ing merchants in Plymouth, and for many years filled
chief places in the Corporation. Their original settlement
in Cornwood was Wisdome, of which place John Rogers
was created baronet in 1698. The present is the first
Lord Blachford, and was the eighth baronet.

Plymstock Manor was part of the possessions of the
Abbey of Tavistock under the Confessor, though not
a portion of the original endowment, and a tradition
attaches to its connection with that house which falls into
place more appropriately in the section on Dartmoor. In
Plymstock parish are the great limestone quarries of
Oreston, out of which the material for the Plymouth
breakwater was hewn, and in which were found the
first bone -caves that formed the subject of scientific
investigation and marked a new departure in geological
discovery. There was much fighting here from time to
time in connection with the siege of Plymouth, and traces
of earthworks are yet visible. Here, too, was the site of
the ancient Keltic settlement at Staddon referred to under
Plymouth. Staddiscombe was the birthplace (1717) of
the learned Nathaniel Foster, translator of Plato. It is
also the reputed birthplace of Walter Britte, an able and
active disciple 01 Wiclif.

Wembury has already been mentioned as the probable
site of the battle of Wicganbeorge. Its name has been
interpreted to mean the ' Viking's bury ' or fort ; while
a kindred origin has been sought for the name of the
adjoining parish of Revelstoke, the * revel ' representing
veafere, a 'rover, robber,' and reafful= rapacious. More-
over the situation of the respective churches close to the
water's edge seems to have in it something of a com-
memorative character. Wembury Church is dedicated

238 History of Devonshire.

to St. Werburga, and thus falls into place as one of the
proofs of Mercian influence in Devon, advanced by Mr.
T. Kerslake. Wembury, which belonged to Plympton
Priory, does not appear in ' Domesday/ though some of
its manors do. The manor of Wembury was acquired in
1592 by Sir John Hele, the well-known serjeant-at-law,
who erected what was regarded as the most magnificent
mansion in the county. It was held for awhile by the
Pollexfens; and early in the present century the house
was pulled down by the then owner, Mr. Lockyer.
Langdon was for several generations till recently the
seat of the Calmadys.

Radford, in Plymstock, has been a seat of the Harris
family for nearly 500 years. Here Ralegh is said to have
been kept in ward on his return in 1618, and here at times
Drake stored much of his treasure.

The last parish to be noted in connection with this
group is Yealmpton. Risdon records a tradition that
y£5elwold had a palace here, and that here also his
' lieutenant,' Lipsius, was interred ; and with Risdon the
statement begins and ends. Under the name of Yealmpton
the manor does not appear in ' Domesday ' ; but it can
hardly be other than the Elintone entered among the
royal manors next to Plintona, ranking next to it also in
importance, and having one hide held by the clergy of
the ville — described in the Exon book as of St. Mary of
Alentona — in alms. The use of E or A for Y in ' Domesday '
is usual ; and there are many reasons which combine to
make this identification all but certain.

In the churchyard at Yealmpton stands one of the
ancient inscribed stones already noted under Tavistock,
bearing one word only, but that variously read. The
common rendering is TOREVS, and that is the reading
current in the neighbourhood, where it is looked upon
with some little interest, and traditionally regarded as
commemorating some ancient chieftain or king. The

Plympton. 239

other reading is GOREVS, but the point can hardly be
regarded as definitely settled, and it may not be amiss to
note that the ancient village of Tor is within a mile, and
that the name, as it stands, is closely allied to that of the
little river Torry at Plympton some -five miles north,
which, moreover, appears in ' Domesday ' as Torix.

Kitley is now the chief seat of the ancient family of
Bastard, which claim descent from the Robert Bastard
who appears in ' Domesday' as the holder of nine manors.
They obtained Kitley by marriage with the heiress of the
Pollexfens, Edmund Pcllexfen, the last male of the family,
dying in 1710. Since then they have acquired several
adjoining estates, including Bowdon, once the seat of a
family of that name, Coffleet, and Lyneham.

Lyneham, for nearly four centuries, was the seat of the
great Devonshire family of Crocker, referred to in the
already-quoted rhyme, who are now represented by the
Bulteels. In Yealmpton Church is one of the finest
brasses in the county, to Sir John Crocker of Lyneham,
cupbearer to Edward IV.

Windsor here was the seat of Richard Fortescue, from
whom, according to Sir W. Pole, are descended the
Fortescues of the east of England. Pitton was the
residence of the North Devon Woollcombes before their
removal to Ashbury.

CHAPTER XXVI.

MODBURY.

MODBURY is one of the oldest market-towns in the county,
and returned representatives to Parliament in the reign
of Edward I. We know nothing of it until ' Domesday,'
when one Richard was the tenant under the Earl of
Moreton, who held it ' unjustly.' The parish comprises
several ancient manors. Orcherton, at the time of the
Survey, was held from the Earl by Reginald de Valletort.
The Valletorts soon became the dominant race, and from
them Modbury came to the Champernownes, who held it
as the seat of the family from the reign of Edward II.
until 1700. There were several distinguished members of
this race, and one of them, Arthur Champernowne, was
knighted in 1599 for his eminent services under the Earl
of Essex in Ireland. There is a curious story that Queen
Elizabeth was so exasperated by the refusal of the
Champernowne of her time to lend her a fine band of
musicians, that she found occasion to compel him to part
with nineteen manors.

A Priory was founded at Modbury, in the reign of
Stephen, by an ancestor of the Champernownes, as a cell
to the Abbey of St. Peter sur Dive, Normandy. When
the alien houses were suppressed, this passed at first to
Tavistock Abbey, but afterwards to Eton College.

Wimpston, as noted heretofore, is the ancestral home

Modbury. 241

of the wide-branching Fortescues, who ceased to reside
therein, however, in the reign of Elizabeth.

Brownston was granted by Adam de Morville to the
Abbey of Buckfastleigh.

Among other families connected with Modbury are the
Prideauxes and Heles of Orcherton ; the Saverys of
Shilston ; the Edmerstons and Rouses of Edmerston ; the
Challons of Leigh ; and the Traynes and Swetes of
Trayne. It was a Savery of Shilston, Thomas, who about
1697 invented the first practical steam-pumping apparatus.

Old Port, a very remarkable fortification of unknown
antiquity, on the Erme, gave name to the De la Ports,
and is suggested by Mr. R. J. King as of older date than
Saxon times. ' It may have been the work of the
Romans before their withdrawal .... or it may have
been raised by some British King of Damnonia, working
and building under Roman traditions, for defence against
the Saxon host.'

Modbury was the scene of the opening passage in the
great drama of the Civil War, so far as Devonshire is
concerned. All the chief towns had declared on the side
of the Parliament, when, in 1642, Sir Ralph Hopton
persuaded Sir Edmund Fortescue, of Fallapit, then High
Sheriff, to call out the posse comitatus. Hopton and
Slanning with a force of between two and three thousand
captured Tavistock, and then Plympton, whence they
marched to Modbury, which had been appointed for the
rendezvous with Fortescue. Here some thousand trained
soldiers and volunteers speedily collected ; and an attack
in force upon Plymouth would not long have been delayed,
had not Colonel Ruthen, in command there, taken the initia-
tive. Very early in the morning he despatched about
500 horse and dragoons, as if an attack on Tavistock were
intended. Speedily wheeling southward, however, they
came round through Ivybridge, and fell upon Modbury
quite unexpectedly, about nine in the morning, after a

16

242 History of Devonshire.

five hours' march. The day was won at once. The
trained bands, crying out 'The troopers are come!' ran
away, leaving their arms behind them ; the unarmed posse,
who were mostly at Modbury sorely against their will, were
no whit slow in following the example. Resistance there
was none, save on the part of Sir Edmund Fortescue and
his friends, who garrisoned the castellated house of Mr.
Champernowne, and made a stout defence until it was
fired and further resistance was hopeless. With the loss
of one man the Roundheads thus not only dispersed an
embryo army, but took a number of important prisoners
—the High Sheriff ; John Fortescue, his predecessor in
that office; Sir Edward Seymour; Edward Seymour, M.P.,
his eldest son ; Colonel Henry Champernowne ; Arthur
Basset ; Thomas Shipcote, the Clerk of the Peace — alto-
gether about a score of prominent Royalists, who were
straightway shipped from Dartmouth to London.

Modbury is probably the last place in the West of
England where the old adage, ' Good wine needs no bush/
had an association in custom. The great fair at Modbury
— known as St. George's Fair, and held for nine days — is
still proclaimed by the manor portreeve and borough jury
in ancient form upon the spot where once stood the market
cross, and within the last fifty years it was the custom in
the town to hang out a holly bush from private houses where
drink was being sold during fair-time, as an indication of
the fact. The bush did duty for an Excise license in the
old days, and the custom appears to have lingered on at
Modbury long after it had ceased to be legal. The fair
was one of the most important in the district. Within
living memory it afforded the only opportunity for the
purchase of cloth in the town; and travelling braziers
were accustomed to ply their avocation only on these
occasions.

Ermington was a market-town under a grant made in
1294. The manor and hundred had been given by

Modbury. 243

Henry I. to Matilda Peverell. Strachleigh was the seat
of a family of that name for ten descents from the reign
of Henry III. The last of the name died in 1583 ; and
the Strachleigh brass is one of the features of the church.
Another is the fact that the altar continued from the
Reformation to be set tablewise, and enclosed by a balus-
trade. The church belonged to the Priory of Montacute.
Strode has already been mentioned as the original seat of
the Strodes. Ivybridge in like manner gave name to its
owners, thence passing to the Bonviles. Woodland is
noteworthy for the fact that the last male of that ilk, Sir
Walter de Woodland, was a follower and attendant of the
Black Prince. The tradition is yet current in the parish,
of the fall, near Strachleigh, in 1623, of a meteoric stone
weighing 23 Ib.

Harford has a place in history as the native parish of
John Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester (1578-1650), whose
success in life, singularly enough, dated from a disappoint-
ment that at the time cut him to the heart — his rejection
for the post of parish clerk of the adjoining parish of
Ugborough. By the kindly help of the mother of Sir
Edmund Fowel (a family long settled at Fowelscombe),
he found his way to Oxford, and rose from the kitchen of
Exeter College in the short space of sixteen years to its
rectorship ; thence passing in 1641 to the see of Worcester.
Ejected when the Puritan party obtained the upper hand
— a fate that was certain to so decided and ardent a
politician and theologian — he bore his reverses with un-
ruffled equanimity, and died cheerfully in pious poverty ;
a singular contrast to his miserable depression when he
failed in his clerkship candidature. He had learnt better
what failure really was. ' If I had been chosen clerk of
Ugborough I had never been Bishop of Worcester.' In
Harford Church is a monument erected by Prideaux to
his father and mother, and one to Thomas Williams,
Speaker of the House of Commons in 1602.

1 6 — 2

244 History of Devonshire.

Ugborough was one of the manors of the Briweres, and
passed to the Mohuns. Fowelscombe, in this parish, was
the original seat of the Fowel family, created baronets
in 1661. At Widcombe here was born, in 1620, Admiral
Sir John Kempthorne, who first showed his mettle by
engaging in the frigate Mary Rose a squadron of seven
Turkish men-of-war, and sinking or capturing the whole.
He was made Admiral for his distinguished services in
1665, under the Duke of York, and took part in several
engagements with the Dutch, as well as that at Solebay.
Subsequently one of the Commissioners of the Navy, he
died at Portsmouth in 1679.

Holbeton tithes were appropriated to the Priory of
Polsloe, and the manor of Battisborough belonged to the
Abbey of Buckfastleigh. The manor of Holbeton passed,
with that of Ermington, to Matilda Peverell. Flete, the
most important estate in the parish, continued in the
Damerells from the Conquest till the reign of Edward III.
It was the chief seat of the Heles, and came to the Bulteel
family by entail. The house has been recently rebuilt by
its present owner, Mr. Mildmay, a connection of the
Bulteel family ; and Membland, long the residence of the
Hillersdons, whom the Bulteels represent, now belongs to
Mr. Baring, another connection, and one of the old
Devonshire Baring stock. Pamflete is now the seat of
the representative of the Bulteels, Mr. John Crocker
Bulteel.

Kingston, which was included in the Peverell grant,
was afterwards in the Martyns, Audleys, Bourchiers, and
Wreys. Wonwell gave name to a family long extinct.

Bigbury was held by lords of that name as early as the
reign of John ; and after nine descents was brought by a
coheiress to one of the Champernownes of Beer Ferrers,
from whom it descended through the Willoughbys to the
Paulets. There is a fifteenth-century Bigbury brass in
the church.

CHAPTER XXVII.

KINGSBRIDGE AND SALCOMBE.

THE well-built and thriving little town of Kingsbridge,
though left out in the cold by abortive railway schemes,
and dependent for communication upon coaches after the
olden fashion, has long distanced Modbury in the race for
the honour and profit of being the chief town of the
South Hams. This, of course, is largely due to its
position at the head of the long many-branched estuarine
creek which divides the great southern promontory of
Devon, with its bold headlands — the Bolt Head and Tail,
Prawle Point, and the Start — into two nearly equal
portions. Of this district it forms not only the natural,
but the topographical centre; and the wonder perhaps
rather is that it has not developed still more important
results.

The manors of Kingsbridge and Churchstow were, in
the thirteenth century, the property of the Abbey of
Buckfast. Originally Kingsbridge had been a part of
Churchstow ; but the growth of a little centre of popula-
tion at the head of the ' Kingsbridge River ' made special
provision for its spiritual wants necessary. A chapel was
accordingly erected, and dedicated to St. Edmund, king
and martyr. This served its purpose for the time, but
burials had still to be performed at Churchstow ; and as
the daughter village grew, this burden became too heavy

246 History of Devonshire.

to be borne. In 1414 (Aug. 26), therefore, probably at
the instance of Abbot Slade, Bishop Stafford consecrated
the Chapel of St. Edmund a parish church, and blessed
its cemetery. The further growth of the community is
shown by the fact that some half-century later the Abbey
obtained a grant for their town of Kingsbridge of a weekly
market, and a three-days' fair, though the market, at
least, was of far older date.

The earliest allusion to Kingsbridge as a borough occurs
in the Hundred Rolls. When the Abbot of Buckfast was
summoned, in 1276, to answer for the rights claimed by
him in the manor of Churchstow, the jury found that
within that manor there was a new borough, which
answered for itself by six jurors, and had a market on
Friday, with a separate assize of bread and ale. This,
then, was Kingsbridge, though it is about fifty years later
that the word is first found., As in the case of Bridgewater,
the bridge in the name is a corruption, and the true title
Kingsburg, though what the King had to do with it is by
no means clear.

Up to the time of the Dissolution, Churchstow and
Kingsbridge remained appendant to the Abbey of Buck-
fast. They were then granted to Sir William Petre, and
in his descendants they remained until 1793, when they
were purchased by the Scobells. Kingsbridge Manor is
now the property of Mr. Hurrell.

Though the distinction is commonly sunken, Kings-
bridge really consists of two little towns — long since one
in fact, though not de jure — Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke.
Of these the latter is by far the older member of the twin
community. Probably named from a Saxon owner,
Dodda the thegn, at ' Domesday ' we find it one of the
few Devonshire manors in female hands, its lady being
Godeva, widow of Brictric the Sheriff. That it early
assumed some importance is proven by the grant of a
weekly market and annual fair, in 1256. For a long

Kingsbridge and Salcombe. 247

period the manor was in the Champernownes, the most
interesting point in its personal history. A large woollen
trade was carried on here well on into the present century.

The southern district of Devon, which is known in the
county as the South Hams, produces a beverage of archaeo-
logical interest — * white ale,' chiefly brewed now in the
neighbourhood of Kingsbridge, where it was tithable
from time immemorial, and commonly held to be of
purely local origin. It is made of malt wort, wheaten
flour, and eggs, and is fermented with a material called
' grout,' the preparation of which is kept a secret. Not
many years ago this * white ale ' was the common drink
of the district ; but its use is rapidly dying out with its
old friends. Mr. P. Karkeek, who has made the beverage
a study, has come to the interesting conclusion that it is
really the old English ale, described by all contemporary
authorities as a thicker drink than beer, which is dis-
tinguished from ale by the addition of hops — in short,
that ' the white ale of the South Hams is a survival in
some form of the ale once drunk by our forefathers all
over England.'

Kingsbridge Church contains a monument to George
Hughes, the leader in the middle of the seventeenth
century of the Puritan clergy of Devonshire, who, when
ejected from Plymouth, retired to this little place to
end his days. The inscription is by his son-in-law, John
Howe.

The town has its full share of worthies. Thomas
Crispin, in 1670, was the founder of the Grammar School,
further endowed with exhibitions by William Duncombe,
who, under his will, in 1698, established a lectureship.
Here also lived at Knowle for many years, and here died
in 1815, the celebrated ornithologist, Colonel Montagu.
The most worthy native was William Cookworthy,
chemist and potter, the discoverer of china clay and
china stone in Cornwall, and the founder of the Plymouth

248 History of Devonshire.

China Works, where the first true porcelain made in
England was produced, and the productions of which are
now most highly valued. Born at Kingsbridge in 1705,
and left when quite a lad by the death of his father, who
was a weaver, in very poor circumstances, he walked to
London to enter on his duties as an apprentice with a
firm of chemists, named Bevan. By their aid, he sub-
sequently established a drug business in Plymouth, and
lived in that town until his death, in 1780. He made his
great discovery of the existence of the materials for the
production of porcelain between the years 1745-50 ; and,
after long experimenting, reached such perfection in their
use, that he obtained a patent in 1768, and manufactured
large quantities of china at Plymouth in the next few
years, after which the factory was removed to Bristol.
Cookworthy was a singular mixture of Quaker and
Swedenborgian, and a firm believer in the divining-rod.

A more widely known, though personally a far inferior,
worthy was the notorious Dr. Wolcot, whose writings
are familiar under the name of ' Peter Pindar.' He was
born at Dodbrooke (1738-1819), and was the most power-
ful master of forceful satire of a rough-and-ready type in
the English tongue — our greatest caricaturist in rhyme.
Most unpleasant in character, he claims praise less for
his abilities than for his sturdy independence, and for the
manner in which he discovered and encouraged the
genius of John Opie, R.A.

Fallapit, in East Allington, or Alvington, was until
recently the seat for several centuries of one of the
branches of the Fortescues, coming to them by marriage
with the heiress of the Fallapits. Garston, in West
Alvington, is an ancient seat of the Bastards, whence
they removed to Kitley. Almost the whole of the Kings-
bridge promontory is celebrated for the mildness of its
climate; and at Garston, as at Combe Royal and at

Kingsbridge and Salcombe. 249

Salcombe, orange and lemon trees flourish in the open
air to an extent unknown elsewhere in England. As
Malborough, South Milton, and South Huish are daughter
churches to West Alvington, this happy mildness may
be regarded as the peculiar prerogative of that parish.
Bowringsleigh, here, was the property and residence of
the ancient family of Bowring.

Thurlestone, which lies near the mouth of the Avon,
takes its name from a remarkable natural arch on the
coast, known as Thurlestone Rock = the stone that is
pierced or 'thirled.' The arch is of red Triassic con-
glomerate, resting uncomformably upon Devonian clay
slate. The parish figures in ' Domesday' as Torlestan, held
in demesne by Judhel of Totnes, with a soldier as under
tenant, and the large enumerated population of thirty-
five.

Ilton, in Malborough, once belonged to the Bozuns,
then to the Chiverstons, and finally came to the Courtenays.
Sir John Chiverston built the fortified mansion, afterwards
known as Ilton Castle, in 1335. In right of their estates
in Malborough the Courtenays exercise important rights
of wreckage along the coast ; and used to hold Courts of
Admiralty at the various maritime villages within the
manors of their royalty. Such courts were usually con-
vened by the manor steward on the occasion of any
wreck, and stringent codes of laws were enforced.

A small district near the Bolt Head, known as the
' Sewers ' from the frequent occurrence of that name in
East, West, Middle, and Lower Sewers, has been suggested
as marking the site of an early Saxon settlement — reading
sewer as scz-ware^6 sea-dwellers.'

Salcombe, in the parish of Malborough, is the chief
port of the Kingsbridge district, lying on the western side
of the estuary near its mouth, and has of late risen into
some favour as a seaside and invalid resort. For this it
is excellently adapted by the beauty and grandeur of the

250 History of Devonshire.

scenery in the neighbourhood, and by the mildness of its
climate. On the opposite side of the water is Portlemouth,
which seems to derive its name from its position, and
which appears in some of the records of the early Middle
Ages as the name of the harbour generally.

Salcombe Castle was the last place in Devon which
adhered to the cause of Charles I. The ruins still stand
on a semi-insular rock in the Salcombe estuary, a position
of great strength and of considerable importance. The
Castle dates from the reign of Henry VIII., and was
one of the numerous little strengths built by him on the
Western coasts to defend the principal ports from sudden
forays. When the war between Charles and his Parlia-
ment broke out it had long fallen into decay, and was
commonly known as the ' Old Bullworke.' Sir Edmund
Fortescue of Fallapit, the Royalist High Sheriff of Devon
in 1642, and for many months a prisoner at Winchester
House and Windsor Castle, on his release undertook to
re fortify and man the ancient walls. Prince Maurice
gave him a commission for this purpose in December,
1643, while he was engaged in the siege of Plymouth; and
Fortescue evidently carried out his work thoroughly.

Little is known of the history of Fort Charles, as
Fortescue named the Castle, except in its last stage. On
January 16, 1646, Fairfax captured Dartmouth, and im-
mediately set forces to watch Fort Charles, under Colonel
Inglesby. It was then garrisoned by sixty-six men, Sir
Edmund being Governor ; and there were plenty of pro-
visions and munitions of war. As it was impregnable to
ordinary attack, a regular siege had to be made. This
was conducted by Colonel Weldon, Parliamentary Governor
at Plymouth, the blockade of which had been raised by
Fairfax. Weldon brought a train of siege artillery with
him from Plymouth, and the battery commenced on the
last week in January. Very little damage was done by
the firing on either side ; and if a memorandum left by

Kingsbridge and Salcombe. 251

Sir Edmund is to be accepted as a complete return, only
one of the garrison was killed and two wounded, while,
on the other hand, only one of the besiegers is recorded
to have been slain.

The siege lasted nearly four months, and the surrender
was probably due to the hopelessness of continuing the
struggle. The Royalist cause was utterly lost, and nothing
was to be gained by holding out. Moreover the blockade
was strictly kept ; and provisions no doubt were beginning
to run short, when, on the 7th of May, the articles of
surrender were agreed upon. They were most honourable
to the defenders. The garrison marched to Fallapit, with
drums beating, colours flying, muskets and bandaliers; nor
did they deliver up their guns until they had fired three
volleys. All the officers kept their arms, all the officers
and men their private property; and all had leave to
depart to their houses, and three months in which to
make their peace with Parliament or leave the kingdom.
As to the fort itself, it was provided that it was never to
be known by any other name than that of Fort Charles,
and that neither it nor any coat of arms belonging to it
was to be defaced. The key of the Castle is still in the
possession of Sir Edmund's representative.

There is a curious local tradition attaching to a little
corner of land — some acre in extent — at Splatt Cove, in
Salcombe Harbour. It belongs to the Bastard family,
and the legend is that their Norman ancestor had com-
mand of one of the vessels of the Conqueror's fleet, which
was driven by a gale into Salcombe, and that it was
upon this very spot the leader and his men landed. The
retention of the land by the Bastards is ascribed by the
country folk to this historical connection. Mr. Karkeek,
however, has shown not only that the legend has no
pedigree, but that it is inconsistent with known facts.
The name of Robert the Bastard does not occur in the
Battle Abbey Roll, and though he is mentioned in

252 History of Devonshire.

'Domesday,' neither of his Devonshire manors can be
connected with Splatt Cove.

Hope Cove has its connection with the great Armada
drama. The St. Peter the Great, one of the Spanish
hospital ships, had escaped with the remnant of the fleet,
rounded Scotland, and was on her way homeward, when
by stress of weather she was driven upon the rocks on
this inhospitable coast, much to the advantage of the
country folk, who made liberal spoil. Out of 190 persons
on board, about 150 were saved. An effort was made to
recover the stores, and special inquiry had to that end by
Anthony Ashley, but it was not very productive.

Portlemouth, already noted, contains the manor of
West Prawle, one of the estates with which Blundell
endowed his school at Tiverton. Scobbahull, in the
adjacent parish of South Pool, gave name to the family
of Scobell.

Stokenham is connected with several families of note.
Given by John to Matthew Fitzherbert, it continued for
several generations in his descendants, and the last of the
family, Matthew Fitzjohn, was summoned to Parliament
by Edward I. as a baron. Dying without an heir, the
manor passed to the King, and Edward gave it to Ralph
de Monthermer to be held of the Crown. As it had been
held under the Courtenays of the honour of Plympton,
the Earl of Devon petitioned Parliament for the redress
of this grievance, which he obtained. The manor
descended through the Montacutes and Pooles to Hastings,
Earl of Huntingdon, and was by him sold to the
Amerediths. Stokenham Church once belonged to the
Priory of Bisham, in Somerset. The church of the ad-
joining parish of Sherford is a daughter to Stokenham,
but Sherford Manor was part of the estates of St. Nicholas
Priory, Exeter. Kennedon, in this parish, in the fifteenth
century became a seat of the family of Hals. Here lived
John Hals, Justice of the Common Pleas in 1423, and

Kingsbridge and Salcombe. 253

here was born his son, of the same name, who, in 1450,
was made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.

Slapton has several claims to notice. It belonged to
the ancient family of De Brian as early as the reign of
Henry II., and descended to the Percy Earls of Northum-
berland, as the representative of Sir Guy de Brian the
younger, through the sole heiress. The St. Maurs
claimed it ineffectually by descent from Guy's sister. The
Percys sold the manor to the Arundells of Wardour.
Guy de Brian, one of the first Knights of the Garter,
founded a collegiate chantry at Slapton in 1373, and the
remains of his house are known as Poole Priory. Here
lived for several years, on his return from captivity in
Spain, Sir Richard Hawkins, son of Sir John, from whom
the Hawkinses of Kingsbridge were descended. Slapton
Lea is a long lake stocked with fresh-water fish in pro-
fusion, separated from the sea simply by a bar of sand
and gravel. Stockleigh, a seat of the Newman family,
whose principal residence is at Mamhead, is close by;
and not far distant is the quaint fishing village of Torcross.
These, however, are in Stokenham. The Courtenays
held Slapton of the Bishops of Exeter by stewartry of the
Installation Feasts, as detailed under Crediton.

The Barton of Hach Arundell, in Loddiswell parish,
has a double family name, having at one time belonged to
the Haches, and at another to the Arundells. License
was granted, about 1463, to Thomas Gyll, junr., to
castellate his mansion at Hach Arundell, and enclose a
park. As Heche was the holder of the manor T.R.E.,
after which it passed to Judhel of Totnes, it seems no
way improbable that Hach may in the first place have
been named from him. The Avon is a good salmon river
now, and Judhel's fishery at Loddiswell returned thirty
salmon yearly.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

TOTNES.

TOTNES is the first link in the legendary history of
England. Brutus, the Trojan, according to early Welsh
and Breton tradition, landed ' on the coast of Totnes ;'
and in the pages of Geoffrey of Monmouth one may read
the full-blown myth, ending in the destruction of the last
of the aboriginal giants — Goemagot — by Corinaeus, after-
wards Duke of Cornwall. There was a time when all
this was deemed purely historical. Totnes, claiming to
be the landing-place of Brutus, has yet a traditional

* Brutus Stone,' on which the Trojan hero is said to have
stepped when he landed — a boulder of no great dimensions,
well up the main street. Plymouth cherished the belief
that the combat between Corinseus and Goemagot took
place upon her Hoe ; and so far back as the fifteenth
century there were graven in the sward of that eminence
two huge figures, popularly supposed to represent the
combatants, renewed as need was, and of unknown
antiquity. It is quite possible, indeed, that both the

* Brutus Stone ' of Totnes and the * Gogmagog ' of
Plymouth originated (with the Gog and Magog of
London City) in the popularity of Geoffrey's story.
Historically they cannot be carried back so far.

A careful examination of the passages in the older

Tot ties. 255

Chronicles wherein Totnes is noticed shows, however,
that this was not the modern town. Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth speaks of the ' coast ' of Totnes, and the ' shore '
of Totnes, and the ' port ' of Totnes, and always with
some such qualification. The inference, therefore, is that
the name was used by ancient writers as that of a district.
It was evidently so employed by Higden in his * Poly-
chronicon,' in quoting the length of Britain as 800 miles,
a ' Totonesio litore,' rendered by Trevisa ' from the clyf
of Totonesse,' which is really only another name for the
Land's End. Totnes thus seems to be in truth the
ancient name for the south-western promontory of
England, perhaps a name for Britain itself, in which
case we can understand somewhat of the motive that led
early etymologists to derive Britain from Brute, or
Brutus. The myth may be so far true that an elder
name was supplanted, and that it lingered longest in the
western promontory. Whether the modern Totnes is
nominally the successor of the ancient title, the narrow
area into which this vestige of far antiquity has shrunk,
may be doubtful, for the word is as capable of a Teutonic
derivation as of a Keltic. The last syllable may be the
Northern ness, but it may as well be the Keltic enys=
' island.' And so while Tot may be an ' enclosure,' it may
equally be the Dod which still exists on the west coast in
the name of the Dodman headland — the 'prominent
rock' (ma.n = maen, a stone). Totnes, therefore, can be
read ' the projecting or prominent island.' The specula-
tion may be pardoned in dealing with a point of such
singular interest. In any case, it seems probable that
this story of Brutus the Trojan -is not absolute fable, but
the traditionary record of the earliest invasion of the land
by an historic people.

The most amusing derivation for the name of the town
is that quoted by Westcote and Risdon— Tout aV aise =
f all at ease ' ! presumed to represent the feelings of Brutus

256 History of Devonshire.

when he stepped on shore, and exclaimed in the words of
a traditional couplet :

* Here I stand, and here I rest,
And this place shall be called Totnes.'

But the 'authorities' on this head are very sceptical
here concerning the extent of the French education which
Brutus had received when —

' The Frenche of Parys was to alle unknowne.1

This same line of argument disposes also of the idea
that Vespasian landed at Totnes town instead of simply
on the * Totnes shore,' which again has led to Exeter
being mistakenly identified as Caer Pensauelcoit, as in
Geoffrey's gloss, ' quae Exonia vocatur.' Mr. T. Kerslake
has pointed out that in all probability the oldest name for
the place at which Vespasian landed is Talnas, as given
in the 'Brut Tysilio.' This, he argues, would resolve itself
into 't-Aln-as, and suggests that the landing really took
place in Ptolemy's estuary of the Alaunas, or Christchurch
Haven ; and that Pensauelcoit is to be found at Pensel-
wood, in the Somerset, Dorset, and Wilts border-land, in
which, indeed, the old name is still visibly extant.

Totnes has been claimed as a Roman station, but
without adequate authority. An ancient paved way lead-
ing towards Berry Pomeroy may mark the line of a
Roman road, but all that can definitely be said is that the
town does stand on the line of one of the ancient British
trackways. The idea that it was connected with the
Fosseway is corrected elsewhere.

Totnes was an Anglo-Saxon mint, and continued to
issue coins for some time after the Conquest ; but only
twenty-six varieties of pennies are known to have been
struck here, and the probability is that the number was
considerably greater. The extant series commences with
Weired II., who began his reign in 979, and continues
under Cnut. Then, however, there is a gap, and nothing

Totnes. 257

more is known of Totnes mintage, save a penny of Rufus.
Probably further research by numismatologists in this
direction would be rewarded. It can very well be under-
stood that the mint would cease its operations when the
Norman lord of the town fell under the displeasure of
Rufus, but intermission of the nature suggested is not so
easily accounted for.

The definite history of Totnes prior to the Conquest is
scanty ; but its position at the time of the compilation of
' Domesday' shows not only that it was then a town of con-
siderable importance, but that it must have been of great
antiquity to have attained such a position. One of the
four burghs of Devon, it had a larger population than
either of its rivals, save Exeter, having ninety-five burgesses
within the burgh and fifteen without tilling the land. This
would give the community a total population of 500 or 600,
while Exeter in all probability had some 2,500 to 3,000.

Before the Conquest Totnes formed part of the demesne
of the Confessor. William gave it with 107 manors in
Devon to his follower, Judhel or Joel, who made Totnes
his chief residence, and was thereafter named Judhel of
Totnes. An active and liberal man, Judhel found time,
before he was banished by Rufus, to leave his mark upon
the head of his barony. Totnes Castle is doubtfully said
to have been built by him. The keep, which remains in
fine preservation, seems of later date ; and probably re-
placed the ' strength ' which he undoubtedly reared upon
the mound that still marks the site of the ancient British
iortalice. The walls of the town are far later than his
time ; and the most important of the two gates which
continue is not earlier than the sixteenth century. The
present circumvallation dates in all probability from 1265,
when Henry III. gave the burgesses liberty to enclose
the town with a wall, and to collect ' murage ' for that
object.

But Judhel undoubtedly founded the Priory of St. Mary,

17

258 History of Devonshire.

portions of which are now used as the Guildhall, prisons,
and sexton's house ; he also granted the Church of St.
Mary of Totnes to the great Benedictine monastery of
Sts. Sergius and Bacchus at Angers.

When Judhel was banished the barony was given to
Roger de Novant. Under John it was divided, Henry
de Novant holding one moiety and William de Bruce, a
grandson of Judhel, the other. The Novant half passed
to the Valletorts, and then to the Cantelupes, who also
acquired the remaining portion. The heiress of Cantelupe
brought the barony to Lord Zouch, and in that family it
remained until, on the attainder of John Lord Zouch in
1486 for siding with Richard III., Henry VII. gave the
castle and lordship to Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele.
Sir Piers Edgcumbe, in 1559, sold the manor to the Cor-
poration ; and the barony was bought by Lord Edward
Seymour of Berry. It subsequently went out of the
Seymour family, but was again acquired by them, and
has descended to the Duke of Somerset.

The earliest known charter of the borough was granted
in 1215 by John, who authorized the foundation of a Guild
Merchant ; and extant documents relating to this Guild
date back very nearly to this period. Thus there is still
preserved on the back of an old roll of the members a
memorandum of an agreement between the burgesses of
Totnes and the Abbot and Convent of Buckfast in 1236,
that the abbot and monks had been received into the
Guild to buy, but not to sell. Two years later, when
William de Cantelupe, as lord of the manor, exempted
the Abbot and Convent of Torre from payment of tolls,
the Guild were able to exact from the fraternity an annual
acknowledgment of two shillings for this concession, so
that independent municipal rights certainly existed. A
curious feature of the rolls of the Guildry, which continue
down to 1377, is that on the admission of each new
member, his or her seat, in order of precedence, is care-

Totnes.

259

fully defined. A still more interesting point is the well-
marked development of the Guild Merchant into the
Municipal Corporation. This is clearly shown : the rolls
continue the proceedings of the Common Court of the
Guild into the Court of the Borough of Totnes, which
merges in the Court of the Mayor. The first record of
the election of a mayor is in 1377, and from that date to
the present day, the list of mayors of Totnes is complete
and uninterrupted.

The town first sent members of Parliament in 1295,
and survived the fatal 1832, but acquired so evil a reputa-
tion that it was disfranchised in 1867.

The Priory was dissolved in 1542, and the site granted
to Katherine Champernowne and others. During the
reign of Edward VI. the appropriation of a portion for
educational purposes originated the Grammar School,
still held in the original building adjoining the Guildhall.
The Guildhall itself, which also formed part of the Priory,
was granted to the Corporation by Elizabeth.

Totnes men have played a conspicuous part in the
national history; but the town itself— -pace Brutus — has
not been the scene of many notable events. Its annals
are mainly those of a thrifty, energetic, prosperous manu-
facturing and trading community, concerned in its own
affairs. Important so far back as the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, its woollen manufacture flourished for some
five hundred years. Its commerce, too, was considerable,
especially with France. But the Totnes folk were not
oblivious of outside duties. A Totnes man, Sir Edmund
Lye, ranks among the boldest seamen of Elizabethan
days, and as one of the heroes who bore his part in the
defeat of the Invincible Armada. Totnes contributed
largely towards the fitting out of the Crescent and the
Hart, two vessels sent from Dartmouth to join the Anti-
Armada fleet.

It was under the Stuarts, however, that Totnes made

17—2

26o History of Devonshire.

itself most conspicuous in national affairs. When in
1625 Charles I. passed through the town on his way to
review his expedition at Plymouth, he had a most hearty
and loyal reception, accompanied with a gift of £200 in
' a faire purse.' Perhaps he bore this in mind when, in
the following year, he created George Carew, Elizabeth's
Lord President of Munster, Earl of Totnes. It is certain
that the Totnes folk set their loyalty on one side when
ship-money was levied, for one of the foremost remonstrants
against this impost was a Totnes man, the chosen repre-
sentative of the borough, Sir Edward Giles of Bowden.
Moreover, when the levy was made, many of the inhabi-
tants refused to pay. They would be the less disposed to
do so, no doubt, because they had been great sufferers by
the ravages of the Turkish and Sallee pirates on the coast
of Devon, which the royal ships were utterly unable to
suppress. And the mind of the burgesses was abundantly
evident when they sent to the Long Parliament men of
such note as Oliver St. John, Hampden's counsel, and
Serjeant Maynard.

It seems somewhat strange that, with this marked
Parliamentary sympathy, Totnes was not the scene of any
fighting, but was occupied without conflict by the soldiers
of each side in turn. Naturally, however, it had its share
of the burdens of war. Goring's soldiers were of very bad
repute, and it was agreed that £150 should be given him
' for the preservation and more safety e ' of the town.
Prince Charles (afterwards Charles II.) had £100, and his
officers demanded £ 10 more ; while £42 135. 4d. was
required by the King's friends at Exeter; and £7 was
actually paid to keep Goring's horse out of the town.
When Goring left Totnes in January, 1646, Fairfax
marched in. His troops were no way objectionable, but
it cost the inhabitants over £170 to supply them with
clothing. To the Roundheads succeeded a third visitor,,
the worst of the series. The plague, which in 1590 had

Totnes. 261

carried off 258 persons, reappeared, and this time had 276
victims. The place was almost deserted, and the grass
grew in the streets.

Like nearly all the boroughs of the West, Totnes mani-
fested the national reaction of feeling at the Restoration,
and indeed in rather exaggerated form. The King was
reminded that the burgesses had joined in the demand for
a free Parliament ; the present made him when Goring's
men were bribed to behave themselves was called to hir.
mind ; and then was left to him the settlement of al]
matters in Church and State. One of the members
chosen to Charles's first Parliament was Thomas Clifford,
the ' C ' of the Cabal. Charles was not ungrateful. His
father's Earl of Totnes had held the title but three years ;
he gave a Totnes viscountcy in 1675 to his natural son.
Charles FitzCharles, Baron Dartmouth and Earl of Ply-
mouth ; and this lasted five years. What was more to the.
purpose, however, was his grant of a charter, in 1684,
under which a wool-market was established.

By the time James succeeded, Totnes had very nearly
returned to ks old Puritan mind. Some, at least, of the
inhabitants were among the followers of Monmouth ; and
it was with reason, therefore, that Jeffries selected the
town for the display of the mangled remains of some of
his unfortunate victims. The spirit of the Corporation
was more clearly manifested when, in 1687, they were
called upon to admit Sir John Southcote, a Roman
Catholic, without the administration of the oaths, to the
place of Recorder, from which Sir Edward Seymour, the
well-known leader of the country party, had been removed.
They refused, and their charter was taken away ; to be
restored, however, in the following October, when the
movements of the Prince of Orange were understood.
When the old charter was seized, the old corporation
were displaced, and among the new corporation South-
cote of course found room.

262 History of Devonshire.

Under the Revolution regime Totnes became loyal once
more; and its loyalty was shown most conspicuously
when, in 1725, it was proposed to levy a land-tax of four
shillings in the pound for warlike purposes. The Cor-
poration petitioned in favour of the tax, and expressed
themselves willing to pay the other sixteen shillings rather
than submit to a foreign yoke !

Totnes, on the score of its ancient ' rows/ often termed
piazzas, has been appropriately called 'the Chester of
Devon.' Portions of these piazzas are extremely ancient.
There is an arch of the twelfth century, and several pillars
of the fifteenth, carrying one back to the palmy days of
the old town, when it was one of the chief clothing marts
of the kingdom — as the phrase ' the hose of fine Totnes,'
celebrated throughout the land, plainly indicates. There
are still also a few perfect Elizabethan fa9ades of con-
siderable interest, and some rich ceilings of the time of
Charles II. Yet more noteworthy is the fine Renais-
sance carving in a room of the time of Henry VIII.,
which forms the upper chamber of the East Gate ; and
which bears testimony, not only to the taste, but to the
loyalty of the authorities in the earlier half of the sixteenth
century, since the central features of the composition are
heads of Henry and of Anne Boleyn.

Totnes has distinguished itself in connection with
literature and art. Setting aside the fact that John
Prince, the author of the well-known * Worthies of Devon,'
was vicar of Totnes before he became vicar of Berry
Pomeroy adjoining, and wrote his delightful work, it is
something for one little community to be able to claim
such men as Edward Lye (1694-1767), the learned Anglo-
Saxon scholar and the author of the ' Dictionarium Saxonico
et Gothico-Latinum,' great-grandson oi Sir Edmund Lye ;
as Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), the distinguished
Hebraist, son of the parish clerk of Totnes — himself
master of its charity school ere he went to college and

Totnes. 263

acquired that learning which resulted in the production
(1776-80) of his great work on the text of the Hebrew
Scriptures ; and as William Brockedon, painter, writer,
and inventor (1787-1854). Some of his works may be
seen in the Assize Court at Exeter, Totnes Guildhall, and
the Churches of St. Saviour, Dartmouth, Dartington,
and Cornworthy. He was a watchmaker by trade, like
his father ; and one of his inventions was the method of
compressing plumbago used in the manufacture of black-
lead pencils.

Charles Babbage (1792-1871), astronomer and mathe-
matician, is erroneously regarded as a Totnes man. How-
ever, he was Devonian by descent ; and eventually became
Mathematical Professor at his College at Cambridge —
Trinity. He is best known to the general public by his
marvellous calculating machine, or ' Difference Engine,'
which enabled him to construct his tables of the logarithms
of the natural numbers from i to 108,000. As a writer,
his best known work is the ninth ' Bridgewater Treatise.'

On the other side of the Dart, but forming part of the
borough of Totnes, is Bridgetown, in the parish of Berry
Pomeroy, the property of the Duke of Somerset.

The Castle of Berry Pomeroy, shrouded in dense woods
on a bold bluff above a feeder of the little river Hems, is
the finest ruin left in Devon. The Berry naturally indi-
cates the presence of some defensive works in early times ;
and perhaps Alric, its last Saxon owner, had his chief
' strength ' here, seeing that Ralph de Pomeroy, to whom
it was given with fifty-eight other lordships by the Con-
queror, built a castle at Berry, and made it the seat of his
barony. A great family, and of wide-reaching influence,
did the Pomeroys become ; and for nearly five centuries
they continued in the front rank of Devonshire landowners,
though they ceased to be summoned to Parliament in the
closing years of the reign or Henry III. A lew vicissitudes

264 History of Devonshire.

they had, but still they retained their estates, and no badge
in Devon was held in greater honour than the Pomeroy lion,
until the fatal day when Sir Thomas Pomeroy, the last
Pomeroy lord of Berry, placed himself at the head of the
Western Rebellion in the reign of Edward VI. ; and with
the failure of the movement lost all his estates, though
he saved his life. Berry then passed to the Seymours,
in whom it still remains, probably by purchase.

Of the fortalice of the Pomeroys there are sundry im-
portant fragments, including the gateway and its towers.
Lord Edward Seymour, son of the Protector Duke of
Somerset, was the first of this name who lived at Berry.
His son, Sir Edward, built within the walls of the ancient
castle a stately home, which was destroyed, it is said, by
fire about a century later, and has never been rebuilt :
thus the ruins at Berry are of two very distinct periods
and characters. The last Seymour who occupied the
mansion was the haughty Sir Edward, who replied to the
question of William III., ' I believe you are of the family
of the Duke of Somerset ?' — ' Pardon me, Sir ; the Duke
of Somerset is of my family.'

Dartington, under the name of Derentun, is the first
known Saxon settlement in Devon ; since the register of
Shaftesbury Abbey records, under date 833, that a Dorset-
shire lady, named Beornwyn, had relinquished her share
of a patrimonial estate near Aimer, in Dorset, to take up
her abode on another hereditary property at ' Derentun
homm in Domnonia.' She may well have been the
ancestress of Alwin, who, at the Conquest, had to yield
it with other manors to William of Falaise, some of
whose most important possessions lay in this immediate
district. It is a noteworthy fact that among the
'Domesday' under-tenants in Dene and Rattery, English-
men are mentioned. Dartington was the seat of the
barony of William of Falaise, and passed in succession
to the Martyns and the Audleys. Richard II. gave it to

Totnes. 265

his half-brother John Holland, Duke of Exeter ; and he
erected the great hall and its associated quadrangle, if,
indeed, a portion of the latter is not somewhat earlier.
The part of the mansion now inhabited was rebuilt in the
time of Elizabeth. Margaret, Countess of Richmond,
had a grant of the manor in 1487 for life. It came to the
Champernownes in the sixteenth century; according to
Pole by an exchange for the site of the Abbey of Polsloe.
The first Champernowne of Dartington was Sir Arthur ;
and when the male line failed in 1774, it passed to the
female side in the Haringtons, who took the ancient name.
From a mistaken idea that the Templars had to do with
this manor, it is occasionally called Dartington Temple.

Harberton, adjoining, now chiefly entitled to notice
from the screen of its church, was the seat of the barony
of the Valletorts, but the manor of Englebourne belonged
to Buckfastleigh. It seems remarkable that the seats of
four baronies like those of Totnes, Berry, Dartington, and
Harberton, should have been planted so closely together,
within a radius of less than three miles.

Dean Prior takes its name as part of the endowments
of the wealthy Priory of Plympton, to which it was given
by William Fitz Stephen in the reign of Henry II. It
was purchased at the Dissolution from Henry VIII. by
William Giles of Bowden, near Totnes, and in the
mansion which the Gileses built there long resided Sir
Edward Giles, born at Totnes about 1580, one of Prince's
' Worthies,' and a prominent Devonian throughout a
long career. A soldier in th2 Low Countries, under
Elizabeth ; a courtier, knighted by James I. at his corona-
tion ; constantly chosen one of the representatives of
Totnes during the reigns of James and Cliarles — he
proved himself not only a statesman, but a patriot, by
remonstrating against ship-money in 1634. Five of the
remonstrants were srnt for to Court, including Sir
Edward, who excuse,! himself on the score oi ill-health,

266 History of Devonshire.

and died in 1637. His sister Christian married George
Yarde, whose heiress, in 1789, married Frances Duller,
and the family is now represented by Lord Churston.

The epitaph on Sir Edward Giles and his wife, placed
beneath their handsome monument in Dean Prior Church,
was written by Robert Herrick, who was for many years
Vicar of Dean. Ejected under the Commonwealth, he
recovered his living at the Restoration, and there he died,
in advanced age, in 1674. Dean does not seem to have
been to his taste, if we may judge from sundry passages
in his poems, by the style in which he speaks of its
* warty incivility,' and the dislike he expresses for ' this
dull Devonshire.' Yet he continued to enjoy life in his
way ; nor could his ' Hesperides ' have flourished as they
did in a soil really uncongenial to his spirit. He is re-
membered by a handsome modern brass.

Rattery is only noteworthy for two things — that it was
given by Robert Fitzmartin, temp. Henry I., to the
Abbey of St. Dogmaels, in Pembrokeshire ; and that it
contains Marley House, one of the seats of the Devon-
shire Carews.

In Ashprington is the domain of Sharpham, which is
one of the few places in the West where a heronry is to*
be found. The rookery is reputedly the largest in the
kingdom, but that is a point on which it would hardly be
wise to express an opinion.

Corn worthy, adjoining, contained a house of Austin
nuns, which was founded in all probability by the Norman
lords of Totnes. The manor belonged to Judhel, and
was both populous and flourishing ; for it had a recorded
inhabitancy of 33, a mill, and a fishery rendering 30-
salnion a year. The Dart even then enjoyed a reputation
which it has never lost, for it remains the best salmon
river in the county. There is only a gate left of the
Priory, which was one of the smaller houses.

CHAPTER XXIX.

DARTMOUTH.

ALTHOUGH of considerable antiquity, Dartmouth yields
precedence to Totnes, to which it was formerly sub-
servient. Towns at the mouths of rivers are almost
invariably less ancient than ports higher up their course.
The reason is obvious. The borough of old had com-
monly a castle for its nucleus, and gathered under the
protection of the owner of the stronghold. The feudal
lord reared his ' strength ' as a rule conveniently central
to his territories ; and if a site near the coast was chosen,
some inaccessible fastness was commonly selected, where
no town could rise. And when trade sprang up, and
trading communities increased in wealth and importance,
similar causes continued at work. Defective roads made
the employment of water-carriage a necessity wherever
possible. The unsettled state of the times rendered it
essential that infant commerce should be conducted in
places which were not exposed to surprise, and could offer
sustained defence against attack. But trade progressed,
and traffic grew ; and by-and-by the advantages of ready
access from the highway of nations counterbalanced the
disadvantages. Then were founded such places as
Dartmouth, guarded by castles and chains in a manner
that in an earlier age would have been impossible.

Dartmouth is not a large place now, but in its infant

268 History of Devonshire.

days three villages occupied its site, and their memory is
preserved in the official name of the borough — ' Clifton-
Dartmouth-Hardness.' The origins of the Clifton and
the Dartmouth are clear enough. Hardness seems to
indicate a Scandinavian origin — 'By the headland,' or
' The headland landing-place/ There are several instances
of the ' ness ' on the south coast of Devon. The earliest
historical reference to Dartmouth deals rather with the
harbour than the town ; its mention as the place where
Swegen, son of Godwin, slew his cousin Beorn.

However this may be, it is certain Dartmouth was the
port whence Rufus sailed to Normandy in the last year of
the eleventh century ; and that eight hundred years age
at least the national importance of its magnificent land-
locked deep-water harbour had been recognised. In
1 190 Dartmouth was selected as the rendezvous for the
fleet, or a portion of the Crusading fleet, of Richard the
lion-hearted. But whether ten ships sailed from Dart-
mouth on this occasion, or 164, the numbers cited by rival
authorities, it is idle to attempt to decide.

There is the usual obscurity in the early stages of the
corporate history of the town. John paid it two visits,
one in June, 1205, when he came from and returned to
Dorchester; the other in October, 1214, when he came
by sea from Rochelle and went on to Dorchester; and
while, according to Leland, he ' gave privilege of Mairaltie'
to Dartmouth, at an inquisition in 1319 the burgesses
claimed to have been a free borough in the reign of
Henry I. Both these points are questionable.

For example, there is no doubt that Totnes is the older
town and long held superiority over Dartmouth; yet
Totnes goes no farther than John for its earliest known
charter ; and Dartmouth was not freed from the control
of the lord of Totnes until William la Zouch, owner of
the barony, granted his rights therein to Nicholas of
Tewkesbury. There may have been some confusion

Dartmoiith. 269

between the town of Dartmouth and the port of Dart-
mouth, which with its water -rights became a royal
appanage, and has continued to the present day a member
of the Duchy of Cornwall. Yet La Zouche granted to
Tewkesbury not only the usual manorial rights, but the
toll and custom of the port and of the river up to Blakston
next Cornworthy, reserving free passage from Totnes to
the sea, without any malicious impediment.

But there must have been a charter of some kind before
the reign of Henry III., for by him it was confirmed ; and
the fact that the oldest extant seal of the borough (temp.
Edward I.) represents a king in a ship, with John's badges
of the crescent and star, certainly indicates an ancient
claim to some connection with that monarch, whatever
its precise character may have been. There was a market
as early as 1226.

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Dart-
mouth rivalled the Cinque Ports in importance and fame,
and was for awhile the foremost seaport in the provinces.
It was frequently made the rendezvous at which vessels
from other ports assembled before departing upon some
great expedition. Perhaps the importance it assumed in
the reign of Edward III. had something to do with the
fact that in 1327 Nicholas of Tewkesbury transferred his
rights to the King, who, ten years later, granted the town
another charter. That ancient landmark in maritime
history, the siege of Calais, ranks Dartmouth the third
port in the kingdom. Fowey found 47 ships and 770 men ;
Yarmouth 43 ships and 1,905 men ; Dartmouth 31 ships
and 757 men, and Plymouth 26 ships and 603 men. Yet
in 1310 Dartmouth had pleaded its inability to maintain
one ship for the King's service without exterior aid, which
was supplied by Totnes, Brixham, Portlemouth, and Kings-
bridge. Edward III. provided in his charter that two
should be found. Probably the prosperity of the little
town was greatly stimulated by the privilege of piracy

270 History of Devonshire.

given to it by this monarch, who is described in ' The
.Libel of English Policy ' as selecting

' Dartmouth, Plymouth, the third it is Fowey,
And gave them help and notable puissance
Upon pety Bretayne for to werre.'

But the sailors of the Cinque Ports were little better, and
fought and plundered among themselves ; and Fowey was
so deeply imbued with this spirit that when Edward IV.
made peace with France its seamen continued war in his
despite on their own account, and had to be set in order
by the aid of the Dartmouth men, who took away the
-chain of the harbour, its chief defence. The fame of
Dartmouth at this time is further attested by the fact
that Chaucer chose it as the probable residence of his
* shippeman.'

* For ought I woot he was of Dertemouthe.'
A man of experience and trust —

'Ther was.non swiche from Hull to Cartage.
Hardy he was, and wys to undertake ;
With many a tempest had his herd been schake,
He knew wel alle the havenes, as they were
From Gootland to the Cape of Fynystere,
And every cryke in Bretayne and in Spayne.'

Dartmouth must have had many such men ; and of this
stamp must have been its chief worthy, John Hawley ,
whose effigies in armour, between those of his two wives,
are to be seen on the Hawley brass in St. Saviour Church.
Chaucer no doubt had visited Dartmouth and heard of
Hawley, the seven-times mayor, the great merchant who
had so many vessels and traded to so many parts, that
the old rhyme is still remembered :

* Blow the wind high, blow the wind low,
It bloweth fair to Hawley's Hoe.'

And there is good evidence that Hawley was something-
more than a « mere merchant/ and perchance fairly an-

Dartmouth. 271

swered to that part of the shipman's character, wherein

it is said :

* Of nyce conscience took he no keep.
If that he faughte and hadde the higher hand,
By water he sente hem home to every land.'

On one occasion Hawley attacked and took thirty-two
wine vessels; but whenever he felt aggrieved, whether
with his own countrymen or with foreigners, he always
kept the law, because he made it himself to suit the
occasion. There was no maxim, indeed, of the truth of
which the Dartmouth folk of the Middle Ages were more
thoroughly convinced, than that ' Heaven helped those
who helped themselves.' Hence not only their incessant
warfare with the French, but their repeated disputes with
other ports. A memorable instance of agreement is,
however, the fact recorded by Walsingham, that when, in
1385, the English Admiral was afraid to attack the
French fleet because of the jealousies within his own, the
Portsmouth and Dartmouth men, on their own account,
made great havoc among the French vessels in the
Seine.

Of course so very busy and aggravating a port had to
take as well as give. How frequently Dartmouth was
assailed in its turn, it is hard to tell. It is said to have
been burnt in 1377 ; and an attack was certainly made in
1404. According to the French Chronicles, Du Chastel,
the Breton, was the leader, and the attack was repulsed
by a force of 6,000 men, and with heavy loss. Du Chastel
was killed, but a month later his brethren avenged his
death by making an unexpected attack and consigning the
town to the flames. So far the French historians. The
English chroniclers do not mention any second descent ;
of which, indeed, there is no trace to be found — and aver
that Du Chastel and his men were beaten by the plain
country people, ' at which time the women (like Amazons),
by hurling flints and pebbles and such-like artillery, did

272 History of Devonshire.

greatly advance their husbands' and kinsfolks' victory/
Patriotism and gallantry alike, therefore, compel us to
accept this version of the affair, especially as the names
of several of the captured Breton knights are preserved.

An important fact in the status of Dartmouth at this
period was its appointment in 1390 the sole port for the
exportation of tin. To this time particularly date back
the ancient fortifications of the town, now, for the most
part, either fallen into ruin or modernised : the two
castles at the harbour-mouth, Dartmouth and Kingswear,
between which of yore a strong chain was hauled up each
night, and in special time of peril ; and the inner guard of
Bearscove and Gomerock ; while the wealth and liberality
and taste of the age are seen in the noble church of St.
Saviour, with its magnificent oak screen — the chancel of
which is the work of Hawley.

Special need of defence is shown in the license granted
to John Corp to embattle his house at the entrance of the
harbour ; and it is a point worth noting that in the adjoin-
ing church of Stoke Fleming, the oldest brasses in the
county are to John Corp (1361), and to Elyenore, presum-
ably a Corp also (1381).

It was inevitable that Dartmouth should take a promi-
nent position in Elizabethan times, though it had been
distanced in the race by Plymouth. Two great names at
least of the Elizabethan galaxy of Devonian worthies
belong to Dartmouth. One, ' lovable John Davis,' born at
Sandridge in the adjoining parish of Stoke Gabriel, who
commenced the career of Arctic voyaging which led to
the discovery of Davis's Straits in 1585 ; and who made
several voyages to the South Seas and East Indies, meeting
his death in 1605 at the hands 01 pirates in the Malaccas.

Near Dartmouth is Greenway, the seat 01 the famous
Gilberts. The family was settled here in the reign ox
Edward II. ; and here were born — their father being Otho
Gilbert and their mother Katherine Champernowne —

Dartmouth. 273

Humphry and Adrian Gilbert, the famous half-brothers
of the still more famous Sir Walter Ralegh.

It was in consequence of its connection with the
Gilberts that Dartmouth obtained the honour of being
the first port in Devon to send out an American colonizing
expedition. Having written a discourse to prove a
passage by . the North- West to Cathay and the East
Indies, Humphry obtained a patent from Elizabeth,
empowering him to discover and settle in North America
any savage lands. His first voyage in 1579 was un-
successful. In his second, in 1583, he took possession of
Newfoundland, which had long been a fishing station for
various nations ; but was drowned on his return voyage
before he could turn this formality to any practical
account. Few are unfamiliar with the brave way in
which he met his death :

* He sat upon the deck,

The book was in his hand ;
" Do not fear, Heaven is as near
By water as by land." '

It was in all probability this same earnest-minded devout
man who boldly proposed to Elizabeth to strike once for
all a blow at the maritime power of her adversaries, by
destroying without warning the foreign fishing fleets at
Newfoundland ; offering himself to the work, even if
repudiated directly it was done, in the confident belief
that it would be to the glory of God and for the safety of
the kingdom. After Humphry's death, Adrian, a man of
advanced scientific knowledge for the times, solicited a
patent for the search and discovery of the North- West
passage. Though the Gilberts did not succeed in their
aim, they yet secured for Dartmouth a very liberal —
indeed, at first a preponderant — share of the Newfound-
land trade, which the ports of Devon so long enjoyed.

Dartmouth had its part in the victory over the Armada.
Two ships, the Crescent and the Hart, were fitted out by the

18

274 History of Devonshire.

town and neighbourhood, manned by 100 men, to join the
fleet which assembled in Plymouth Sound. Beside these
were five volunteers : Sir Walter Ralegh's Roebuck, Sir John
Gilbert's Gabriel, Sir Adrian Gilbert's Elizabeth, Gawen
Champernowne's Phcenix, and the Samaritan — the latter
surely one of the oddest of odd names for a man-of-war.

Dartmouth is associated, too, with a melancholy
incident in the life of Ralegh. Hither was taken the
great carrack, the Madre de Dios ; and hither was brought
Ralegh in disgrace, the ' Queen's poor prisoner,' to see to
the safety of her stores and treasure, a work in which, as
Cecil reported, he ' toiled terribly.' Cecil himself was
disgusted with Devon. ' Fouler ways, desperate weather,
nor more obstinate people, did I never meet with.' No one
will agree with Cecil now, and Dartmouth itself remains
the most quaint and picturesque old town in the West.

The Corporation of Dartmouth must have been tolerably

wealthy in the early part of the seventeenth century ; for

in 1642 they authorized the advance, by the hands of

their representatives in the Long Parliament, of

£2,668 75. 6d., to help in reducing the Irish rebels, the

same to be recouped out of their lands. The money

appears to have been paid, and the Corporation were so

fortunate as to secure a map of their property ; but

somehow or other matters stopped there. It is hardly

necessary to indicate the proclivities of Dartmouth at

this period. It fell, nevertheless, into the hands of Prince

Maurice after a siege of one month and four days, and

remained a Cavalier stronghold until the end of the war,

the most zealous Roundheads of the town having joined

the garrison at Plymouth. It was taken by assault by

Fairfax in January, 1646. Dartmouth was stormed at

three points by Colonels Pride, Hammond, and Fortescue;

Kingswear Fort, on the other side of the river, which was

held by Sir Henry Cary, then came to terms ; finally, the

Governor, Sir Hugh Pollard, who had taken refuge in the

Dartmouth. 27 ';

castle, surrendered. Thus, with comparatively little loss,
the last town in the district that held out for Charles was
taken, and with it 1,000 troops, 120 guns, and 2 ships.

This is the last event which connects the town with the
general history of the country ; but its most important
personal association has yet to be named. Somewhere
about the year 1670, there was born in Dartmouth a man
who did more to lay the foundations of the present
manufacturing greatness of the kingdom, and to advance
the progress of industrial operations throughout the world,
than any other who can be named. This was Thomas
Newcomin, the inventor of the first practical working
steam-engine, upon which, after it had been many years
in useful operation, the work of James Watt was based.
Newcomin, with whom was associated another Dartmouth
man, named Cawley, perfected his engine in 1705. Hardly
anything is known of him except that he was a locksmith
and ironmonger, and that he died in 1729. The date of
his birth is quite uncertain, but no doubt has ever been
thrown upon his being a Dartmouth worthy. The house
in which he lived was pulled down a few years since, and
the materials worked into a house called ' Newcomin
Cottage.' West-Countrymen are proud of the fact that
to Newcomin the world owes the stationary steam-engine,
and to Trevithick, of Hayle, in Cornwall, the locomotive.
Newcomin's engine was a perfectly new machine, though
it had to a certain extent a predecessor in the ingenious
device of Savery of Shilston ; and Trevithick's engine
was the first that proved the practicability of steam loco-
motion on railroads.

Dartmouth first sent members to Parliament 26th
Edward I., but the returns are not continuous from that
date. In 1832 it lost one member, and in 1867 it was
disfranchised. It had long attained, like its neighbour
Totnes, an unpleasant reputation, and on one occasion, it
is said, £400 was given to a voter to induce him to abstain

18— 2

276 History of Devonshire.

from voting. For a long time the members of the Holds-
worth family had considerable sway in the Corporation.
They held the post of Governor of Dartmouth Castle in
something like hereditary succession, the office gradually
dropping into a sinecure, and at last becoming a mere
title, and disappearing with the death of the last * Governor
Holdsworth,' who was one of the representatives of the
borough before the Reform Bill of 1832.

Dartmouth has a prominent link with the elder Non-
conformity. Its Independent congregation was founded
by the celebrated Puritan preacher and divine, Flavel,
who was ejected in 1662 from St. Saviour, and died in
1691, at the age of sixty-one. It is rather a remarkable fact
that a brass was erected to his memory at the time of his
decease in St. Saviour, but removed by order of the
Corporation in 1709. It now occupies a prominent place
in the Independent Chapel, and concludes with the
words :

* Covld Grace or Learning from the Grave set free,
FLAVELL, Thov had'st not seen Mortality ;
Thovgh here Thy dusty part Death's Victim lies,
Thov by thy WORKS thyself dost Eternize,
Which Death nor Rust of Time shall Overthrow ;
While Thov dost Reign above, These Live Below.'

A number of French gold coins found on the beach at
Blackpool Sands, about half-way between Dartmouth and
Slapton, have been, with good reason, treated as relics of
the landing of the Earl of Warwick at Dartmouth, on the
I3th of September, 1470. Ships, money, and men for
this expedition were supplied by the French King. The
.coins included ecus d'or of Louis XI. and Charles VII. of
France, with other coins of Charles V. and Charles VI. ;
and gold nobles of Edward III. and V. and Henry V. are
also stated to have been discovered at the same place.
Most of the coins certainly found at Blackpool were,
however, French, and their dates show that they were
probably lost between 1465 and 1483.

CHAPTER XXX.

ASHBURTON AND BUCKFASTLEIGH.

IT has been commonly assumed that Ashburton is the
' Aisbertone ' recorded in ' Domesday ' as being held by
Matilda in succession to Brictric, and under her by
Judhel of Totnes ; and that when he was banished it
became the property of the Bishops of Exeter. ' Aisber-
tone,' however, possessed not only fisheries, but a salt-
work, and was therefore adjacent to the sea ; and the
true Ashburton of ' Domesday ' is the ' Essebretone ' which
the Bishops of Exeter held before the Conquest, and to
which ' Domesday ' gives a population of sixty. The
little stream which at the time Ashburton was founded
was named the Ashburn, has long been called the Yeo,
which is simply the Saxon ea — water. Whether the
Ashburn was so called by the early settlers from the ash-
trees in its valley, or whether the ' ash ' is merely the
Keltic uisg ( = water) which occurs in Devon as exe, axe,
ug, and ock, it would hardly be safe to say. The northern
termination ' burn ' is, however, interesting as a trace of
that peculiar system of district nomenclature almost con-
fined in Devon to the Dartmoor area, and appearing to
indicate the settlement of various river basins by isolated
bands of Teutonic colonists of differing origin.

The Bishops of Exeter held Ashburton until it was
assumed by the Crown under James I., and subsequently

278 History of Devonshire.

sold in moieties to Sir Robert Parkhurst and the Earl of
Feversham. The first portion, passing through the
families of Stawell and Tuckfield, came by the heiress
of Roger Tuckfield to Samuel Rolle, descended to the
Trefusis family, and is now the property of Lord Clinton.
The other moiety has been in Duke, Palk, Mathieson, and
others, and was at length purchased by Mr. Robert
Jardine, who was the last member for the now disfranchised
borough. The annual court-leet and court-baron of these
lords is held alternately by their stewards in the chapel of
St. Lawrence, in ancient form. At this court a portreeve
and a bailiff are elected, and the various minor manorial
officials, the bailiff being the summoning officer, while the
portreeve of one year is almost always the bailiff of the
preceding.

The most notable of the ecclesiastical lords of Ash-
burton in his connection with that town, was Bishop
Stapledon, who held the See of Exeter from 1308 to 1327.
He was partial to the little burgh on the verge of the
Dartmoor highlands, and frequently resided in its manor-
house. Two years after his accession he procured the
grant of a market and fair ; and four years later still
founded the Guild or Fraternity of St. Lawrence, giving it
a chapel which he had erected within the precincts of his
court. The present edifice, therefore, very closely marks
the site of the episcopal palace. The Guild had to find a
priest to pray for his soul after death, and for the souls of
the other holders of the see. Moreover, the priest was
to keep a free school ; and whatever overplus there might
be on the endowment was to be spent in the ' reparacion
and maintenance of ledes for the conduction of pure and
holesome water to the town of Aysheperton, and upon the
relief and sustentacion of such people as are infected
when the plage is in the towne, that they being from all
company may not infect the whole.' Though the charter
of St. Lawrence was surrendered to the Crown, together

Ashburton and Buckfastleigh. 279

with the chantry, in 1535, and though of the ancient
fabric the tower only remains, Bishop Stapledon's
foundation retains in effect its ancient educational uses.
Up to the suppression of the Guild the free school was
carried on as directed ; and when the chantry fell into the
hands of the King there were found burgesses of Ash-
burton far-seeing and liberal enough to buy the chapel
and the ground round about. For a time the school was
supported by voluntary contributions, but by-and-by
endowments began to come in, and the free school
developed into the Grammar School, which, with this
record of five centuries and a half, continues to the
present day.

The school has made its mark in the reputation
achieved by three of its pupils — John Dunning, first Lord
Ashburton ; Dr. Ireland, Dean of Westminster, and
William Gifford. Dunning (1731-1783), the son of an
attorney practising in Ashburton, by dint of the most
untiring perseverance, and after enduring many a hard-
ship, rose to the first rank in his profession as a lawyer,
acquired an immense fortune, was elevated to the peerage,
and died at the early age of fifty-one. His title has been
revived in the family of his wife, Elizabeth Baring.
Devon has produced many eminent lawyers, but none
more eminent than John Dunning. William Gifford
(1776-1826), the distinguished critic and translator, born
five years before the death of Dunning, had one of the
hardest fights in his early days recorded of any Devon-
shire worthy. An orphan at thirteen, with no friend in
the world, no relative save a younger brother, an apprentice
to a hard master, slaking his thirst for learning by beating
out pieces of leather smooth, and working algebraic
problems upon them with a blunt awl — most forlorn was
his lot until a surgeon of Ashburton, named Cookesley,
obtained the cancelling of his indentures, and with the
help of other friends had him sent to school. Two years

280 History of Devonshire.

only qualified Gifford to enter as Bible clerk at Exeter
College, and thence his career was one of continued
success. First editor of the Quarterly, he resigned
that post only two years before his death; and the
quondam shoemaker's apprentice found a grave in West-
minster Abbey, of which his old schoolfellow, Ireland,
became dean. Five years younger than Gifford (1782-
1842), the son of a butcher, Ireland went from the Ash-
burton school to a Bible clerkship at Oriel, and speedily
won preferment and fame. Like Gifford a ready and
ripe scholar, Ireland was most munificent in his gifts for
the promotion of learning. £10,000 was given by him to
establish a professorship at Oxford for the exegesis of
Scripture ; and the Ireland scholarship, founded by him
in 1825, has become the chief honour of its kind Oxford
has to bestow.

Ashburton was first called upon to send representatives
to Parliament in 1298 ; but does not appear to have exer-
cised that duty again until 1407. From this date until
1640 it returned one member only, and then was required
to send two, which has been held to indicate that the
town leant to the popular side. This was unquestionably
the case, but it is not quite clear that the fact could have
helped it to greater weight in the legislature. In 1832
the borough was once more restricted to one member,
and in 1867 was finally disfranchised after some exceed-
ingly close contests, which did not altogether increase its
reputation.

Ashburton has never been prominent in the national
history ; and one of the few facts noted is its occupation
by Fairfax in January, 1646, apparently unopposed.

The church is remarkable for the discovery, during a
restoration in 1840, of a number of long earthen jars
built into the wall of the chancel, the purpose of which
has been much controverted. They are commonly held
to have been acoustic vases; but since, when found, their

Ashburton and Buckfastleigh. 281

mouths were covered with pieces of slate, this explanation
seems doubtful ; and it is averred, on the other hand,
that they had in them certain hard substances, thought
to be * dried hearts.' The church is supposed to have been
founded about the year 1137 by Ethelward de Pomeroy,
the wrongly reputed refounder of the Abbey of Buckfast ;
but the chancel would date some two centuries later.
Again, the church has been regarded by some authorities
as collegiate, by others as having been a dependency of
Buckfast Abbey. There is no evidence for either suppo-
sition, but some connection between the Abbey and Ash-
burton may be presumed.

The Abbey of Buckfast, Buckfastleigh, or, as in ' Domes-
day,' Bucfestre, is a foundation of great age, one of the
very few religious houses in Devon which had existence
before the Conquest. The early history of Buckfast is
lost in remote antiquity ; but the monks claimed, in the
reign of Edward I., to hold the manor of Zele Monachorum
by the gift of Cnut ; and * Domesday ' shows the Abbey a
flourishing institution with considerable possessions. It
has been said that this original house was dissolved by
the Conqueror, its estates confiscated and given to the
Pomeroys, and that it was refounded by Ethelward de
Pomeroy, son of William. This rests, however, solely
upon a single sentence of Leland, and the whole weight
of evidence is in favour of the unbroken descent of the
house from Saxon times. Ethelward de Pomeroy was no
doubt a benefactor, and hence the tradition. ' Domesday '
gives Bucfestre as the head of the Abbey, and notes the
fact that it had a smith.

Originally, so far as can be ascertained, Benedictine,
Buckfast became a daughter-house of Savigny, united to
the Cistercian Order in 1148. There is no certain proof
when Buckfast changed to the Cistercian rule, but this
would in all probability be in the latter half of the twelfth

282 History of Devonshire.

century. The Abbey flourished under the care of the
farmer monks, who in 1236 were admitted into the Guild
Merchant of Totnes. In April, 1297, Edward I. visited
the Abbey ; and in 1340 Abbot Philip obtained a grant of
a weekly market at Buckfastleigh, and of a yearly fair at
Brent. Under his successor, Robert Simons, a case was
decided in 1358 which has an important bearing on the
constitutional and social history of the kingdom. One
Richard Avery, of Trusham, complained that the abbot —
w et armis — had carried off property to the value of £100.
The abbot's rejoinder was that, Avery being a villein of
his manor of Trusham, he ought not to be called upon to
answer. Avery declared that he was a free man and not
a villein ; but the jury decided that he was nativuSj and
the abbot had judgment. Hence, even in the latter half
of the fourteenth century the villein had no rights, at
least against the lord of the soil. His position is also
indicated by another lawsuit later in the same abbacy
(1384), when Simon charged Walter Rosere and William
Buriman with carrying off his villeins, Christina Barry
and John Barry, of Down St. Mary, whereby he was
injured to the extent of £20. It would not be safe, how-
ever, to infer from this special instance the nominal value
attached to villeins in those days, though they formed a dis-
tinct element in the appreciation of estates. Simon appears
to have had a taste for litigation, and engaged in sundry
actions of an important character concerning fishery rights.
None of the abbots was a man of mark, unless we except
William Slade, a Devonshire man, who became head in
1413. ' He was not only a scholar and a theologian, but
an artist,' and zealous in the discharge of his duties. He
was a student and an author, and some of his works are
menticned in a list of the Abbey library given by Leland.
The last abbot was Gabriel Doune or Downe, who was
appointed in 1535, and surrendered in February, 1538.
He was probably * the author of the plan which resulted

Ashburton and Buckfastleigh. 283

in the capture, imprisonment, and death of Tyndale ;'
and Mr. J. Brooking Rowe thinks that he was foisted
upon the monks of Buckfast better to carry out the
designs of the King. This at least is certain : he received
a pension of •£ 120, and was appointed rector of Stepney,
prebendary of St. Paul's, and finally, upon Bonner's depri-
vation, was constituted by Cranmer residentiary.

The gross income of the Abbey at the Dissolution was
£499 133. lofd.

The Abbey and the adjacent lands were granted to Sir
Thomas Dennis, and descended in his family. A century
later they were the property of Sir Richard Baker, the
historian. Eventually they were sold in parcels, and the
remains of the Abbey, with the modern house built upon
the site and in part with its materials, are now once more
the home of monks of the Benedictine order, who are
successfully engaged in its reconstruction upon the ancient
lines.

A century since the old monastic buildings were of
great extent. At present the manufacturing prosperity
of Buckfastleigh is the brotherhood's chiefest monument.
The great wool-traders of their age and district, the
founders of the mills which in process of time became
converted to the purposes of the woollen manufacture, the
Cistercians of Buckfastleigh were in no very remote sense
the originators of the trade of the locality. Buckfastleigh
and Ashburton, by the steady adoption of new processes
and improved machinery, have maintained their reputation
for high-class woollen goods, and thus unite with North
Tawton in proving that it was less through necessity than
by bad management that this great staple industry of
Devon was driven to the North.

Ashburton, as one of the original Stannary towns of the
county, was associated with mining enterprise, histori-
cally at least, as far back as the twelfth century ; and it
continued that association, though more in name than in

284 History of Devonshire.

fact, until ' tin coinage ' was abolished in 1838. Buck-
fastleigh, however, remains the centre of a mineral district,
which has been from time to time worked for copper with
more or less success.

An interesting relic of the past of Buckfastleigh is an
ancient path across the neighbouring moor, still called the
' Abbot's Way.' This was the road used by the monks
of Buckfast, Buckland Monachorum, and Tavistock, to
communicate with each other, and it is the shortest path
between these places across the moorland. Save in the
enclosed country, the Abbot's Way is distinctly marked,
and in parts is still well worn. At a place called Broad
Rock the road from Buckfast forks, one portion leading
to Tavistock, and the other to Buckland.

It is probably due to its association with Buckfast that
Brent had a little cruciform Norman church, the central
tower of which was found, in the course of recent restora-
tion, to have been retained as the western tower of the
later fabric.

Holne Chase is one of the finest examples of the ancient
chase left in the kingdom, and the only chase in Devon
retaining aught of its ancient aspect. The woods, with
those of Buckland-in-the-Moor, known as the Buckland
Drives, extend for many a mile along the valley of the
Dart. The most picturesque part of the course of that
river is known as the ' Lover's Leap,' from the customary
legend * made and provided,' where a precipitous rock
affords it a locus in quo. Holne, under that name — so that
it must even then have been noted for its hollies — was one
of the ' Domesday ' manors of Baldwin the Sheriff, and
from the entry, ' formerly waste,' seems to have been
recently taken out of the Dartmoor border-land. It was
part of the barony of Barnstaple, and has passed with
Tawstock to the Audleys, Bourchiers, and Wreys. Estates
here were given to Buckfast by Valletort and Bauzon, and

Ashburton and Buckfastleigh. 285

the church belonged to that Abbey. Here, while his father
was serving the vicarage, Canon Kingsley (1819-75) was
born. Buckland was once in a family of that name, sub-
sequently in the Arcedeknes, and afterwards came to its
present owners, the Bastards.

There are several ' camps ' in the neighbourhood, the
most important of the series being Hembury, near Buck-
fastleigh. To this a curious tradition attaches, firmly
believed in the locality. A party of marauding Danes are
said to have found their way up the Dart, and seized upon
this stronghold ; and to have carried thither the women
of the district at their pleasure. Eventually 'a lot of
women determined, as the men could not get rid of them,
to allow themselves to be taken in a body by the Danes
to the castle, and in the night each cut the throat of the
man who lay by her.' The Saxon men made an attack
at the same time, and the Northmen were annihilated.

Devon has been famous for cider for many a century.
In fact, it claims to have had at Plympton the first
orchard planted in England. Be that as it may, there is
no part of the county more noted for cider now than the
valley of the Dart, nor a parish which has a higher repu-
tation than Staverton.

Widecombe Church is sometimes called the ' Cathedral
of the Moor,' although, previous to a recent restoration,
nothing could be more ludicrously appropriate than the
text blazoned in the south porch of the edifice, without
the least suspicion of a double application : ' How dread-
ful is this place !' The fabric gives historic interest to its
rugged moorland parish. Dedicated to one of the most
famous British saints — St. Pancras — its foundation would
seem to be very remote ; and the probability is that the
romantic, bowl-shaped valley in which it stands — the
' wide combe ' truly — is the seat of one of the oldest of
the continuing moorland settlements.

286 History of Devonshire.

' Domesday ' shows by its references to the five manors
which are included within the parish of Widecombe-in-the-
Moor that it was fairly settled, considering the period
and character of the country ; but at a much later date,
when the tin streams of the district came to be vigorously
worked, it must have been really populous, as population
went. The tradition runs that the magnificent western
tower — which is of much later date than the body of the
church, and which for sharpness and finish of detail is not
only the glory of the Moor, but the finest among the
granite towers of the West — was built by a body of neigh-
bouring tinners, who cared not for cost. It has also been
noted that the bosses of the nave roof appear to indicate
a connection with alchemy, if not with ordinary metal-
lurgy. One of the devices is that of Basil Valentine's
' Hunt of Venus ' — three rabbits, each with a single ear,
which join in the centre.

The ' Widecombe thunder-storm' has found a niche alike
in history and folk-lore. On Sunday, 2ist October, 1638,
while the congregation were assembled, a terrible dark-
ness overspread the face of day, and ' suddenly, in a fearful
and lamentable manner, a weighty thundering was heard,
the rattling whereof did answer much like unto the sound
and report of many great cannons, and terrible strange
lightening therewith, greatly amazing those that heard
and saw it, the darkness increasing yet more, so that they
could not see one another ; the extraordinary lightening
came into the church so flaming, that the whole church
was presently filled with fire and smoke . . . which
so affrighted the whole congregation, that the most part
of them fell down into their seats, and some upon their
knees, some on their faces, and some one upon another,
with a great cry of burning and scalding, they all giving
themselves up for dead, supposing the last judgment day
was come, and that they had been in the very flames of
hell.' They had good reason for their fright, if not for their

Ashburton and Buckfastleigh. 287

conclusion. A fiery ball zigzagged through the church,
cleaving the skull of one man into three pieces ; dashing
the head of another against the wall so violently that he
died that night ; firing the clothes and tearing the flesh
of others of the congregation ; overturning pews and
shattering walls and windows. When the blast was over
there was dead silence, until one Master Rowse ex-
claimed, ' Neighbours, in the name of God shall we
venture out of the church ?' Whereto Master George
Lyde, the minister, evidently believing that it was indeed
the end of the world, rejoined, ' It is best to make an
end of prayers, for it were better to die here than in
another place.'

Of course the storm was set down to the special malice
and device of the devil, and there were not wanting after
the event those who could tell how his satanic majesty
had called at an inn on the road to Widecombe for a
drink, which hissed down his throat as if it were poured
on hot iron. The visitation is one of the stock legends of
the country-side, and the supernatural element is by no
means banished from the popular mind. The story goes
that when a modern teacher asked a child in an adjoining
parish, ' What do you know of your ghostly enemy ?' she
had the utterly unexpected answer, illustrating the fatal
tendency of an evil reputation to grow, ' Please, ma'am,
he lives to Widecombe.'

The parish still retains much of its old-world character,
and is remarkable even on the Dartmoor border-land for
the number of its old farmhouses, yet in the hands of
the ancient yeomanry of the county, a race which has
almost wholly disappeared in the lowlands. Such old
farmsteads are for the most part associated with clumps
of ashes — the old Scandinavian tree of life, round which
clusters a notable portion of the local folk-lore. The
clumps are no doubt survivals of the influence of the
Norse faith.

288 History of Devonshire.

Widecombe is associated with a few great names. The
manor of Spitchwick was the property of Harold before
the Conquest ; and was once held by the Fitzwarines
and the Hankfords, and for some time by John Dunning,
the first Lord Ashburton, who acquired a leasehold
interest. The manor of Widecombe was long in the Fitz
Ralphs, or Shillingfords. Blackaton Manor, once probably
held by Judhel of Totnes, took name of Blagdon Pipard
from the Pipards, as early as King John. Deandon was
for some centuries in the Malets, who acquired it by
descent in the female line from the Deandons ; but since
1600 has been owned by the Mallocks of Cockington.
Notsworthy, presumably held by the Earls of Moreton,
was, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in
the Fords of Bagtor, the most distinguished of whom
was Sir Henry Ford of Nutwell, Secretary of State for
Ireland to Charles II., who died in 1684. Dunstone, for
two centuries at least after the Conquest, was the property
of the Pomeroys.

Ilsington has a claim to notice, little and upland parish
though it is, in the fame of its one distinguished son,
John Ford, the dramatist, born at Bagtor, then the seat
of his family, in 1586. The lines are very familiar :

' Deep in a dump John Ford alone was got,
With folded arms and melancholy hat.'

The greatest of the dramatists of Devon, he is all but
forgotten now ; nor has Gifford's masterly edition of his
works rescued him from oblivion. He was but twenty
when he first ventured into print with his ' Fame's
Memoriall on the Erie of Devonshire.' His first play
was produced in 1613, his last in 1639 > but nothing is
known of the date and place of his death. Sir Henry
Ford, already named, is supposed to have been his
grandson. Though much modernized, the old manor-
house where Ford was born is still standing.

Ashburton and Bzickfastleigh. 289

Tor Brian is linked with several names of note, the
most famous of its early lords being one of the foremost
of Devon's worthies. Sir Guy de Brian, standard-bearer
to Edward III., did such service at Calais that he had a
grant of 200 marks yearly out of the Exchequer. In
1354 he went to Rome with Henry, Duke of Lancaster,
to procure a ratification of the league between England
and France from the Pope. In 1370 he again served in
France, and in the same year illustrated his many-sided
character still further by becoming Admiral of the king's
fleet. Edward showed his esteem for Sir Guy by
choosing him one of the Knights of the Garter. De
Brian served Richard II. with equal success in France
and in Ireland, by land and by sea, in the camp and in
the court. He founded and endowed a collegiate church
in his manor of Slapton, already noted, and died at an
advanced age in 1391, leaving two granddaughters only.

In later years Tor Brian became the cradle of the noble
house of Petre. Tor Newton was the birthplace of the
celebrated Sir William Petre, the most eminent of a dis-
tinguished band of brothers. First brought to Court by
Cromwell, he speedily became a favourite with Henry VIII.,
and was one of the visitors of the religious houses. The
wealth thus acquired he had wit enough to keep, obtain-
ing under Mary, from Pope Paul IV., a confirmation of
the grants of Church property made by Henry. One of
the means used to this end was the promise to employ
the money in a way the Church would approve ; and one
of the ways adopted by him was the foundation of eight
fellowships at Exeter College. He must have been a
man of wonderful tact ; for he held the office of Secretary
of State and enjoyed equal favour under Henry, Edward,
Mary, and Elizabeth. Under Henry he ' observed his
humour ;' in Edward's time ' kept the law ;' in Mary's
' intended wholly State affairs ;' and in Elizabeth's was
* religious.'

Two parishes in the Ashburton district still keep up the

19

290 History of Devonshire.

ancient dedication feast with much of the old-fashioned
heartiness, and without any pretence of business. With
them the ' revel ' has never developed into the fair. At
Ideford the sports last three days, and open house is
commonly kept. The date is fixed by the Nativity of the
Virgin — the 8th of September. The first day is spent in
hare-hunting on Haldon ; the next in coursing on more
enclosed lands ; the evenings being devoted to parties.
The third day is generally appropriated to excursions.

The ' revel ' at Holne on Old Midsummer Day is
evidently of far higher antiquity. Its chief incident is the
roasting of a lamb whole in the ' Play Park' by the church.
The inhabitants claim the right of taking the first rarn
they find on entering the Moor ; but in these prosaic days
they think it best to make a purchase. When roasted, the
lamb is carried in procession, preceded by a fiddler, to an
inn, cut up and distributed; after which sports commence,
and dancing winds up the day. ' Old people who have
made it a point to get a slice every year,' Mr. Fabyan
Amery says, ' assure me " that a slice of revel lamb beats
every other sort of roast meat in flavour and richness." '

The most remarkable district fair was that at Denbury,
which came to a close by operation of the rinderpest in
1866, after continuing from 1285, when it was granted
to the Abbot of Tavistock. It was held on the igth of
September, and was attended by all classes. The carriages
of the county families of the district were to be seen there ;
it became the fixed day for the payment of rents ; and it
was in many ways the pivot on which the business and
pleasure of the twelve months turned. Strangely, how-
ever, Denbury Fair, under the old name, kept in the old
way, yet thrives in Labrador, established there generations
since by Devonshire settlers, and still dear to their
descendants, though these are quite ignorant whether
Denbury be the name of man, woman, place, or thing.

CHAPTER XXXI.

TORQUAY, PAIGNTON, AND BRIXHAM.

TORQUAY in name dates back some two hundred years ;
but in fact was barely more than a name — a little pier
or quay, and half a dozen fishermen's huts — until the
early part of the present century, when the need of ac-
commodation for the families of the officers of the fleets
which made Torbay their rendezvous was felt.

If, however, the name is set aside, and traces of ancient
life alone considered, no place in the kingdom has more
distinguished claims to antiquity ; for at Torquay is
Kent's Cavern, the exploration of which has carried back
the history of man in this country not merely to Palaeo-
lithic days, but to interglacial, perchance to preglacial
times ; while across the bay at Brixham is the Windmill
Hill Cave, the exploration of which finally settled, with
scientific investigators, the contemporaneity of man and
the extinct mammalia, and the high antiquity of the
human race. Discoveries of flint and bone weapons and
implements, pointing in the same direction, have also
been made in the submerged forest beds of Torbay.
Taking Torquay in its representative sense, we may fairly
say, therefore, that while it is almost the youngest town
in Devon, it is far and away the oldest settlement ; and that
its age is not to be measured by common standards of
chronology, but by the expression in geological terms of

19 — 2

29 2 History of Devonshire.

the work done by natural forces since the appearance of
the first traces of man. The latest expression of opinion
by Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S. — the authority on this special
subject — is the probability of the inference that the
hyaena did not reach the South of England until its last
continental period, and that the men who made the
Palaeolithic nodule-tools found in the oldest known deposit
in Kent's Cavern arrived either during the previous great
submergence, or what is more probable, unless they were
navigators, during the first continental period.

We cannot pretend to fill the gap that yawns between
us and the era of even the later Palaeolithic men ; but
the shores of Torbay afford evidence of continued occupa-
tion from the dawn of the historic period. Not many
years ago extensive earthworks could be traced on the
uplands between Babbacombe and Anstis Coves, which
have been deemed, upon slight grounds, to be of Roman
character, but were probably Keltic, and the Apaunaris —
continuing in name in the modern * Hope's Nose ' — of the
Ravennat. We have the ' Apa ' also in ' Babba,' no doubt
of Norse origin. A large camp at Berry Head, the oppo-
site horn of Torbay, was undoubtedly occupied by the
Romans. Still the situation is not one they would have
chosen in the first instance, and it resembles too closely
the ancient cliff castles of Cornwall, the chief defence
consisting of a rampart cutting off the extreme point of
the promontory and protecting it against attack from the
land side, not to suggest an earlier date than the Roman
occupation. The character of Torbay is such as to invite
the landing either of friends or foes, for commerce or for
war ; and it has indeed been suggested as the * Totnes
shore,' whither the fabled Brutus found his way.

The neighbourhood was popular with the Saxons. The
place-names in the vicinity are almost exclusively of
Teutonic character, and it affords two of the rare local
instances of the proven existence of a church before the

Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham. 293

Conquest. ' See Marie cerce ' appears in ' Domesday ' as
belonging to the Earl of Moreton, and as having been
held by Ordulf 'T.R.E.' The enumerated population
being sixteen only, in all likelihood the manor was the
ancient ecclesiastical centre of the district. The Saxon
font is still in existence, preserved through the church-
warden period by being partially buried, reversed, in the
floor. It is ornamented with rude and very quaint
carvings of figures of men and animals. The most notable
exception to the prevailing Saxon nomenclature is Cock-
ington, the first syllable in which is the Keltic coch = red,
referring, no doubt, to the red Triassic cliffs of that part
of Torbay.

Next in importance to St. Mary Church, as a prede-
cessor of Torquay, and the actual germ out of which the
modern town has grown, is the manor of Torre, held
by William Hostiarius at the time of the Great Survey in
succession to Alric, and possessing in 1086 an enumerated
population of thirty-two ; while that of the adjacent
manor of Ilsham, which had fallen into the hands of this
same ' servant of the King,' is set down at half-a-dozen.
Such are the first definite facts in the history of what is
now proudly called (not without reason or rivalry) the
* Queen of Watering-places.'

The first real step in advance was taken when, in 1196,
William de Briwere founded the great Abbey of Torre.
De Briwere was a man of mark. There is a tradition
that he was born on the shores of Torbay ; there is
another that he was found exposed on a heath, as an
infant, and thence acquired his surname. Prince makes
him out to be the descendant of Richard Bruer, a com-
panion of the Conqueror. Whatever his origin, he won
wealth and fame. In some way not clear he succeeded
to the manor of Torre ; and he held prominent positions
in the Courts of Henry II., Richard I., John, and
Henry III. — a statesman of ability and trust. His family

294 History of Devonshire.

influence was greatly extended by the marriage of
Reginald de Mohun, given him in ward by Henry III.,
with his fifth daughter, Alicia. This marriage carried
Torre to the Mohuns, and the manor of Torre Briwere
became the manor of Torre Mohun, in modern parlance
Tormoham. Although one of the most powerful nobles
of the West, De Briwere in the conflict between John and
his barons took the side of the King, and orders were
sent by that monarch in 1216 to Robert de Courtenay,
Viscount of Devon and Governor of Exeter, to admit De
Briwere and his forces into the city, if the garrison was
not sufficiently strong.

Torre Abbey was founded upon a pre-existing church,
which, like that of the adjoining parish of Paignton, was
seemingly of Norman origin. It was dedicated to the
Holy Saviour, the Holy Trinity, and the Virgin ; and was
first settled by an abbot and six monks in 1196. Norbertine
or Premonstratensian, it became at length the richest
house of the Order in the kingdom. De Briwere had
himself been liberal of his gifts ; and eight years had not
elapsed from its foundation before William Fitz Stephen
gave it the church of Townstal, which brought Dartmouth
within the abbatal jurisdiction. Among its other properties
were the manor and church of Wolborough ; the manors
of Ilsham, Collaton, Kingswear ; lands at Buckland and
Woodbury ; the tithes of St. Mary Church ; and several
good livings.

The monks, moreover, were business men, and became
members of the Totnes Guild Merchant. An amusing
though unpleasant episode occurred in the abbacy of
William Norton, who was charged, in 1390, with having
abused his powers as lord of the manor by cutting off the
head of a canon named Hastings. The canon was pro-
duced in the flesh to satisfy Bishop Brantyngham that he
was not dead ; and the Bishop took him at his word.
Other people, however, were not so easily satisfied ; and

Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham. 295

therefore to this day the headless ghost of Simon
Hastings makes hideous the dull November nights by
galloping a spectral horse through Torre avenues. At
the Dissolution in 1539, the annual revenues of the Abbey
were set forth at £396 os. nd.

The Abbey lands changed hands very rapidly. John
St. Leger, to whom the site was granted, sold it to Sir
Hugh Pollard. Pollard's grandson conveyed it to Sir
Edmund Seymour, and he sold it to Thomas Ridgway,
ancestor of the Earls of Londonderry, the lord of the
manor of Torre Mohun, which John Ridgway and John
Petre had bought of Edward VI. By the Ridgways the
whole property was held until 1653. Torre Abbey was
then sold to John Stowell, from whom nine years later it
was purchased by Sir George Gary, of Cockington. Torre
Mohun passed by the marriage of Lucy Ridgway, in 1716,
to the Earls of Donegal ; and in 1768 was purchased by
Sir Robert Palk. It now belongs to Lord Haldon, his
descendant ; and Torre Abbey to Sir George Gary's repre-
sentative, Mr. R. S. S. Gary. The Carys claim special
notice among the notable houses of Devonshire.

The ' Domesday ' manor of Kari, in the parish of St.
Giles-in-the-Heath, was the first recorded seat of the
Gary family ; and one branch continued to reside there
so late as the reign of Elizabeth. As early, however, as
the reign of Richard II. it ceased to be their principal
home. Sir William Gary then settled at Clovelly, and his
brother Sir John, Chief Baron of the Exchequer,
acquired, with many other manors, that of Cockington,
only to lose them all by deciding for Richard against the
Commissioners. His attainder was reversed in favour of
his son Robert, who gained the favour of Henry V. by
vanquishing an Aragonese knight in Smithfield. Two
generations later the family were again in difficulty. Sir
William Gary, grandson of Robert, was an ardent

296 History of Devonshire.

Lancastrian ; and one of those who, after the fatal battle
of Tewkesbury, took refuge in the Abbey Church. Two
days later the refugees were treacherously beheaded.
The usual forfeiture followed; but Sir William's eldest
son, Robert, obtained restoration from Henry VII. He
was the ancestor of the present stock of Devonshire
Carys. From his half-brother spring the ennobled Carys,
represented by Lord Falkland.

The most notable Gary of Cockington was Sir George,
born about 1540, who took a leading part in the land
arrangements for the defence of the country against the
Spanish Armada. In conjunction with Sir John Gilbert
of Compton, he had the charge of a large number of
prisoners, taken in the Capitana, flag-ship of Don Pedro
de Valdez, captured by Drake in the Revenge, after she
had been well battered by Hawkins in the Victory, and
Frobisher in the Triumph. Captain Whiddon brought
the Capitana into the bay, and her crew were lodged for a
while in the great barn at Torre Abbey, hence to this day
called the ' Spanish Barn.' Gary's general services during
this eventful period were zealous and great. His chief
claim to rank as a worthy of Devon is based upon his
official career in Ireland. Appointed by Elizabeth herself
Treasurer of Ireland in March, 1599, he entered at once
upon his duties. They had a mournful commencement ;
for in the September following, his only son George was
killed, while serving under the Earl of Essex against
O'Neill. A few days later, Essex left for England ; and,
in addition to his Treasurership, Gary became Lord
Justice. In Ireland, with one brief interval, he continued
to serve until the death of Elizabeth ; and when James
succeeded, to his other posts was added that of Lord-
Deputy. In October, 1604, his repeated solicitations
procured his relief from the cares of State, and Sir
Arthur Chichester was appointed in his stead. On his
death in 1617, his estates passed to his nephews. The

Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham. 297

Carys were staunch Royalists, and lost Cockington
through the Civil Wars, when it became the property of
its present owners, the Mallocks ; but Sir George Gary,
great-nephew of the Lord - Deputy, purchased Torre
Abbey in 1662, and the family are thus still settled in the
locality where they attained their highest eminence.

Several curious traditions are connected with the
' Spanish Barn,' all originating, of course, in its use as a
temporary prison. One is that large numbers of the
prisoners were starved to death, grafted upon which is
the further detail that a farmer, who secretly gave them
food, was hung by the country-folk, whose hatred to the
foreigners was most bitter. Then it is said that a body
of Spaniards, who had landed with the intention of
plundering the Abbey, were kept on shore by an English
fleet ; and, flying for refuge to the barn, perished from
starvation. Another tradition, quite irreconcilable with
its associates, is that the blood of the Spaniards ran like
water down ' Cole's Lane,' which, as Mr. White suggests,
may have a foundation in fact if the prisoners, on their
road to Exeter, tried to escape. But all the legends
agree in this — that the spirits of the Spaniards still haunt
the spot where they spent their last days.

There is very little of the original structure of the Abbey
itself left. Of the church there are a few fragments, in-
cluding portions of the tower and chancel and the entrance
to the chapter-house. The domestic buildings are in better
preservation, and a fine gateway remains fairly intact, with
the tower. During the progress of the latest restorations
a very handsome crypt was opened out.

Another Torquay antiquity, and almost the only com-
panion of the Abbey, since the ancient mansion of Torwood
Grange was removed, is a building known as St. Michael's
Chapel, on the hill above the Torre railway station.
There is no account of its origin, but it probably dates from

298 History of Devonshire.

the twelfth century, and its religious character seems
clear. Beyond this there is only the old Grange at Ilsham,
once appendant, like Torwood, to the Abbey.

In the early part of the seventeenth century Torquay
seems to have been a place of some little importance
under the name of Fleete (the Saxon name of the brook
that formerly fell into the bay of the present harbour),
which survives now only in Fleet Street ; and it is rather
remarkable that so distinctive an appellation should
have been lost. A lease, granted in May, 1678, gives
capital evidence of the existence of a centenarian among
the inhabitants. It was on the lives of John Goodman,
Philippa his wife, and Mary his daughter, for ninety-nine
years, and an endorsement testifies that Mary surrendered it
in person in June, 1777. Torre Mohun has exceptional
interest for students of tenures in its custom of free bench.
The widow of a customary tenant had her free bench,
save in case of incontinency, but that could be cured by
the performance of the conditions set forth in BudgelFs
well-known Spectator article. ' The custom of the Manor
of Torre ' figures prominently in some of the caricatures
directed against Queen Caroline.

The history of Torbay is chiefly associated with naval
expeditions. In early times its villages were included
under the port of Dartmouth, and contributed to enhance
the maritime fame of that historic port. Then we
find it the seat of a steadily growing independent fishing-
trade with Newfoundland, developed from the local
fisheries which gave prosperity and prominence to
Brixham. The first great fleet that used these waters
was that which brought over William of Orange. Two
years later Torbay was occupied by the French fleet
which harassed the coast for the restoration of James,
and a party from which burnt Teignmouth, finding that
at Torbay the whole strength of Devon was drawn up
to oppose them. Next, in 1703, Sir Cloudesley Shovel made

Torqiiay, Paignton, and Brixham. 299

Torbay the rendezvous of the combined English and
Dutch squadron under his command, destined for the
Mediterranean. From that time onward its many ad-
vantages appear to have been continuously recognised ;
and it was a chief station of the British fleet during the
great French wars. Torre Abbey was a favourite residence
of Earl St. Vincent ; and it was only natural that not
Torquay only, but Paignton and Brixham also, the other
members of the Torbay town triad, should profit by the
presence of the relatives of the officers, who were in the
habit of visiting them, and who in many cases found it
convenient to take up their residence in the houses that
were speedily built for their accommodation. This was
the real commencement of Torquay as a watering-place.

The importance of Torbay at this period, in a national
sense, had its drawbacks as well as its advantages. In
November, 1803, it was confidently anticipated that
Napoleon had chosen it as the scene of his descent on
England. One reads with amusement now of the arrange-
ments made at a very 'respectable and numerous meeting*
for the assembly of the infirm and children, who were
unable to walk ten miles in one day, in three divisions,
to be removed inland by horse and cart, while the able-
bodied who were not employed on particular service were
to meet the clergyman at the church to consider how
they could render the greatest assistance to their neigh-
bours and country. Twelve years later Napoleon did
make his appearance at Torbay, but as a prisoner on
board the Bellerophon. He remained in Torbay from the
24th July to the nth August, 1815, with the exception of
four days during which the Bellerophon proceeded to Ply-
mouth ; and on the nth he sailed for St. Helena in the
Northumberland. Both in Torbay and Plymouth Sound
there was an immense concourse of people in boats to see
the fallen monarch ; and the Torquay folk still recall
with pride Napoleon's testimony to the charms of their

History of Devonshire.

surroundings : ' What a beautiful country ; how much
it resembles the Porto Ferrajo in Elba !'

It used' to be said of Torbay, in consequence of its un-
sheltered condition, and of the manner in which it was
employed as a naval rendezvous, that it would one day be
the grave of the British fleet. Happily, the prediction
has not been realized, and the construction of the break-
water at Plymouth having caused Torbay to be abandoned
as a naval station, the danger may be held to have disap-
peared. That such fears were not groundless was amply
proved in January, 1866, when, of a large number of
vessels which were lying in the bay windbound, fifty were
wrecked and nearly 100 of their crews drowned. The
actual loss was never accurately ascertained. Many
vessels were stranded, and several sank at their anchors.
This led to a proposal to construct a breakwater; but
nothing was done until the late Lord Haldon, at his own
expense, formed a new harbour at Torquay, which has
largely developed its yachting interest.

The manor of Paignton belonged to the See of Exeter
before the Conquest, With the single exception of
Crediton, it was the most valuable possession of the See
when the Survey was taken, the returns having been raised
from thirteen pounds to fifty. It had 36 serfs, 52 villeins,
and 40 bordars, with 5 swineherds, and a salt-work.
Hence we are not surprised to find in the tower doorway
of its church evidence that it once possessed an important
Norman fane. Paignton became a market-town in 1294 ;
and at a very early date was selected by the bishops as an
occasional residence. They held the manor until Bishop
Veysey, by the royal requisition, conveyed it to William
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Blagdon was the ancient
seat of the Kirkhams, whose richly decorated Late Per-
pendicular chantry is the most notable feature of the
church interior.

Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham. 301

Additional interest attaches to the ruins of the old
palace from the fact that its last episcopal occupant was
the famous Myles Coverdale, eminent as a prelate, but
still more eminent for his translation of the Bible. Pro-
bably a Yorkshireman, little is certainly known about him
until the appearance of his version of the Scriptures in
1535. His first visit to Devon was as a kind of army
chaplain to Lord Russell, while engaged in quelling the
Western Rebellion in 1549. Two years later he was ap-
pointed coadjutor Bishop of Exeter, and then it was he
occupied the Paignton palace. As his Bible had at this
time been in print some sixteen years, the baselessness of
the local tradition, that it was translated at Paignton,
is apparent. The accession of Mary led to his banish-
ment, but it does not seem that on his return to England,
when Elizabeth brought safer times, he again visited
Devon.

A note in the MS. autobiography of Dr. James Yonge,
circa 1670-80, says, probably on the authority of current
report at that date, ' Paynton was anciently a Borrough
town, and, as Is sayd, held her charter by a whitepot
(whence Devonshire men are soe called), which was to
be 7 yeares making, 7 baking, and 7 eating.'

In the adjoining parish of Marldon is the fine old
fortified house known as Compton Castle. Once the seat
of a family of that name, it came to the Gilberts of Green-
way by marriage with a coheiress. Though long a farm-
house the ' castle ' is in very fair preservation. The
gateway and chapel preserve their ancient character
tolerably intact ; and the whole pile has a remarkably
picturesque appearance. The elaborate machicolation is
the most distinctive feature.

Brixham, for centuries a fishing-port of note, has long
been the chief fishing-town in Devon; and its fishing-
boats are unsurpassed in excellence. It is the ' Briseham '

History of Devonshire.

which Judhel of Totnes held in succession to Ulf, with its
neighbour Cercetone, now Churston Ferrers. Brixham
has in ' Domesday ' a population of 39 ; Churston of
25 only, including 3 cotars ; but we have no other clue
to their ancient history beyond that implied in the fact
that the latter parish was a Saxon ' church town ' on
the south side of Torbay, precisely as St. Mary Church
on the north. Brixham passed to the Novants and Valle-
torts, and was some time held by the Bonviles. It is
now very curiously owned. A division of the manor into
quarters was followed by the purchase of the portion
which came to the Gilberts by a dozen fishermen ; and
their shares have again been divided and subdivided
among fisher-folk, who are commonly known as the ' quay
lords,' though there are some 'ladies.' Thus there are
more ' lords and ladies of the manor ' at Brixham, from
the representatives of the Duke of Bolton downward,
than in any other town in England.

Nethway at one time belonged to Sir John Hody, Chief
Justice of the King's Bench 1440, and the family con-
tinued to live there until 1696. Sir William Hody was
Lord Chief Baron in 1487. Lupton, once in the Peniles,
Uptons, and Haynes, has been for nearly a century the
seat of a branch of the Buller family of Crediton, descended
from Sir Francis Buller (1746-1800), Justice of the King's
Bench, and raised to the peerage by the title of Baron
Churston in 1858. Churston was long held by the Yardes
in succession to the family of Ferrers, and came to the
Bullers by the marriage of the heiress of the Yardes with
Sir Francis Buller, the judge. The Churston Bullers
have since used Yarde as an additional surname.

But the historical relations of Brixham are far more
than personal. The old village, commonly called Higher
Brixham, is about a mile from Brixham town, or Lower
Brixham, anciently known as Brixham Quay. At this quay
it was that there landed, on the 5th of November, 1688,

Torquay, Paignton, and Brixham. 303

William of Orange, on his way to the English throne.
Upon the pier, though removed from the original site, is
a simple memorial, the inscription whereon sets forth,
' On this stone and near this spot, William, Prince of
Orange, first set foot/ The event has happily suggested
the device for the seal of the Local Board, which repre-
sents the landing of the Prince, with the words of his
motto, ' I will maintain.'

A very full and detailed contemporary account of the
landing of the Prince and his followers is contained in a
pamphlet published by a chaplain called Whittle, who
was on board the fleet. When the people who crowded
the cliffs to see the ships understood who had come,
great, he says, was the shouting and delight. Great was
the delight also at Torre Abbey, where Te Deum was
sung under the impression that the vessels belonged to
France ! The local traditions of the circumstances of the
landing are curious, and undoubtedly embody sundry
facts. William is said to have approached the shore and
asked if he was welcome. Having explained his purpose
he was told that he was. ' If I am, then come and carry
me on shore,' said he, and immediately a ' stuggy [thick-
set] little man' jumped into the water and did so. This
seems to be fairly historical, for it has been a constant
tradition in the Varwell family that one of their ancestors
not only assisted the Prince to land in the manner de-
scribed, it being low water at the time, but gave him his
first night's lodging in his house in Middle Street. Whittle,
indeed, states definitely that William made his palace of
one of the fishermen's little houses; and his leading
followers were quartered in the houses around, while the
troops camped out.

The unhistorical part of the tradition comes in with an
amusing rhymed address, which the inhabitants are said
to have presented to their illustrious visitor :

304. History of Devonshire.

'And please your Majesty King William,
You be welcome to Brixham Quay,
To eat buckhorn and drink bohea
Along with we,
And please your Majesty King William/

No doubt need attach, however, to the fact of the preser-
vation of the stone on which William first stepped on
landing.

Among other local traditions are some stating that the
country-folk took quantities of apples to Brixham and
other points on the line of march to give to the troops.
The Nonconformists of the district were especially hearty
in their greeting; but, as a rule, men of position were
slow to give in their adhesion. The first to do so was
Mr. Nicholas Roope, a member of an ancient family living
at Dartmouth. There is some reason, however, to believe
that the Prince had a secret interview with Sir Edward
Seymour of Berry (who openly joined him at Exeter) at a
house since called Parliament House, between Berry and
Brixham. It is probable also that other influential persons
were present. The muniments of the Seymour family
yield no information upon the point, for all the documents
relating to those transactions appear to have been care-
fully destroyed.

CHAPTER XXXII.

NEWTON.

NEWTON lies at the junction of the two parishes of High-
week and Wolborough, and has been formed by the fusion
of a couple of adjacent villages, which sprang up re-
spectively under the patronage of lords of adjoining
manors, the choice of site being clearly dictated by a
position which was anciently at the head of the Teign
estuary, but has long been separated therefrom, first by
marshy, and afterwards by reclaimed land. Of these two
towns or villages, one was called Newton Abbot, from the
fact that Wolborough, in which it stood, formed part of
De Briwere's endowment of Torre Abbey ; the other was
named Newton Bushell, from the Bushells, its possessors
in the latter half of the thirteenth century. Both names
still exist, but Newton Abbot has developed so rapidly
under the influence mainly of the railway system, of which
it forms an important local junction, that the name of
Newton Bushell is rarely heard, and even Newton Abbot
is giving place to the simpler Newton.

We can hardly venture to identify positively either of
the * Wiches ' of * Domesday ' with the modern Highweek.
Wolborough is probably the Vlgeberge which Alured the
Briton held in succession to Alwin ; though the Vlveberie
held by Ralph under Baldwin the Sheriff is almost as
close. Highweek first appears, however, as part of the

20

306 History of Devonshire.

manor of Teignweek, given by Henry II. with Newton
and Bradley to John, son of Lucas, his butler. As the
name Bradley finds place more than once in 'Domesday,'
it is possible that Newton Bushell may be one of its
Niwetons, and thus have the respectable antiquity of
some nine centuries. The manor of Teignweek has
always carried with it a moiety of the hundred of Teign-
bridge ; and the occurrence of that name in ' Domesday '
proves the existence of a bridge there in Saxon times.
Teignbridge is on the line of an old British trackway,
and when the present structure was built in 1815, four
previous bridges were found represented on the site ;
it is suggested that in the oldest of these we have Roman
workmanship. Teignweek was given in 1246 to Theo-
bald de Englishville, and by him to his foster-child and
kinsman, Robert Bushell. The Bushells continued until
Richard II., when their heiress brought it to the Yardes.
In the Yardes it remained until 1751, when it was sold to
Thomas Veale, and from him came to the Lanes. Bradley
has long been the seat of the lords of Newton Bushell,
and although much mutilated, still remains an interesting
example in many of its details of a fortified mansion of
the fourteenth century.

Newton Bushell became a market-town by grant in
1246 to De Englishville, but the market was allowed to
lapse in favour 'of that of Newton Abbot, which was in
existence in the reign of Edward I., if not earlier, and was
acquired by the Yardes in the reign of Philip and Mary,
and descended, with the estates, to the Lanes. The
respective rights of the lord of the manor, and of the
burgesses, are said to have been settled by deed in the
reign of Edward II.

Wolborough continued part of the possessions of Torre
Abbey until the Dissolution. In the reign of James I. it
was bought by Sir Richard Reynell, the younger son of
a family which had been settled in the adjacent parishes

Newton. 307

of the Ogwells as early as the fourteenth century. His
heiress married Sir William Waller, the Parliamentary
general ; and Waller's daughter, in turn, Sir William
Courtenay; from him it has descended to its present
owner, the Earl of Devon, by whom the growth of the
new town between the old town and the railway station
has been judiciously guided and liberally developed.

Manorial jurisdiction still continued in full sway at
Newton until the present generation, and forty years since
the portreeves elected for each moiety of the ancient
' Newton ' both had seals of office. It is now governed by
a Local Board whose seal is a curious compound. The
central device is the tower which represents the old
chapel of ease of St. Leonard, and stands at the * four
ways;' then there are a mitre and pastoral staves to recall
the Abbots of Torre, and a fleece to typify the ancient
woollen trade.

At Ford House Charles I. was twice entertained at his
first visit to Devon, in September, 1625. Ford was then
the seat of its builder, Sir Richard Reynell, and it was in
partial recognition of the liberal hospitality shown that
Charles knighted Reynell's two nephews — Richard Reynell
of Ogwell, and his brother Thomas, who was the King's
server. Charles was on his way to Plymouth to inspect
the expedition designed for Cadiz, and on his return again
made a halt at Ford, attending service at Wolborough
Church, and touching a child for the evil. The bills of
fare for the two entertainments have been carefully pre-
served, so that we know that the first cost £28 135. 5d.,
and the second £55 53. Waller lived for a while at Ford
during the Protectorate ; and it was the first house of
note that received William of Orange.

On what was once the pedestal of the ancient market-
cross of Newton is a modern inscription, setting forth,
* The first declaration of William III., Prince of Orange,
the glorious defender of the liberties of England, was read

20 — 2

308 History of Devonshire.

on this pedestal by the Rev. John Reynell, rector of this
parish, 5th November, 1688.' It is very doubtful how far
this may be regarded as an authority for anything more
than the statement that the declaration was read from
the spot. The date given is that of the landing, and the
army did not reach Newton until the 7th. William
appears to have reached Ford House on the 8th, leaving
on the gth ; and it was while he was there, according to
Whittle, the army chaplain, that the declaration was read
by ' a certain divine ' who * went before the army,' and
not by the ' minister of the parish.' If not Whittle him-
self, it is probable that the reader of the declaration was
Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Burnet.

A hospital house was founded here by Lucy, Lady
Reynell, in 1638, for the widows of clergymen. She set
forth her idea of their need in the couplet :

' Is 't strange a prophet's widowe poore should be ?
Yf strange, then is the Scripture strange to thee.J

Wolborough was the burial— probably the birth— place
of a Devonian worthy— John Lethbridge, whose death is
thus recorded in the parish register, ' Dec. n, 1759.
Buried Mr. John Lethbridge, inventor of a most famous
diving-engine, by which he recovered from the bottom of
the sea, in different parts of the globe, almost £100,000
for the English and Dutch merchants, which had been
lost by shipwreck.' Lethbridge appears to have been the
first who succeeded in turning diving-apparatus to any
practical account; and there is still extant a silver
tankard, on which is engraven a map of Porto Santo,
where some of his chief exploits were done, and an
llustration of the diving-apparatus at work. He dived
on at least sixteen wrecks, some with good success.

Newton has long developed an important trade in

tmg-clays which are found largely in the immediate

neighbourhood, and worked by pits. Most of the clay

Newton. 309

raised is sent to Staffordshire ; but of late there has been
a rapidly increasing development of local potteries, and
the town is now the centre of a group of works, dotted
at intervals from Bovey Tracey — where a pottery has
existed considerably over a century — to Torquay, which
produces the finest English terra-cotta. This local
industry now includes the utilization alike of the most
refractory and the finest clays of the district, and has
developed to its present proportions within the past
twenty years. In connection with clay-pits at Zitherixon,
there was found, about 1866, a singular wooden image,
which appears to have been associated with an ancient
phallic cult, practised in the district centuries before the
Christian era. In 1881, a canoe was found in the clay-
beds of the same Bovey basin, which Mr. Pengelly regards
as at least of glacial age.

Haccombe is the most interesting parish in the vicinity
of Newton, and one of the most singular in Devon. Of
old time it was an extra-parochial chapelry ; and as it
was made an arch-presbytery by Sir John L'Ercedekne
about the year 1341, so the rector of Haccombe is ' arch-
priest ' still. The college originally consisted of the arch-
priest and five associates, who lived in community ; but
only the head now remains. As the seat of an arch-
priest, Haccombe naturally used to claim exemption from
the authority of an archdeacon ; and Haccombe itself
was regarded as beyond the jurisdiction of any officers,
civil or military, and as being free, by royal grant, from
any taxes. Probably fewer changes as to population
have taken place here than in any other manor in Devon
which has developed into a parish. When Stephen held
it under Baldwin the Sheriff, it had a recorded population
of 15. It now contains simply the manor-house, rectory,
and farm ; and the population is largely dependent upon
the residence of the family at the time of the census.
Normally, it is below 20 ; and at one enumeration it was

History of Devonshire.

but 13. Stephen took name from his manor, and the
heiress of his family brought it to the Ercedeknes. By
marriage it then came through the Courtenays to its
present owners, the Carews. The church dates from the
thirteenth century, and contains some fine effigies of the
Haccombes, with brasses of the Carews, and a high
tomb which probably commemorates the Courtenay
owners— Hugh and Philippa, his wife. On the door of
the church were formerly four horse-shoes, relics, accord-
ing to the legend, of a wager made between a Carew and
a Champernowne, as to who would swim on horseback
the farthest to sea. Carew won the wager, and with it a
manor, and nailed the shoes of his horse to the church
door in ' everlasting remembrance.'

Kings and Abbots Kerswill are so named from the
former being originally in the Crown, while the latter was
part of the estates of the Abbey of Torre. Comnswell
adjoining, though named from the family of Coffin, was
also in part the property of the Abbe}/. Daccombe, here,
was the inheritance of a family of that name, and was
given by Jordan de Daccombe to the same house. At
Kingsteignton are the principal clay-pits of the neigh-
bourhood. Like Teignweek, this manor carried with it a
moiety of the hundred of Teignbridge. Early in the
sixteenth century it came to the ancestors of the present
owner, Lord Clifford. Two sons of vicars of this parish
have gained some note — Theophilus Gale, a Noncon-
formist divine, born in 1628 ; and De Beeke, Dean of
Bristol, whose father held the vicarage for sixty-one years.
De Beeke was the discoverer of the Beekites in the local
Trias, thence named. Teigngrace takes name from the
Grace or Graas family, who succeeded the Briweres, after
whom it had been previously named Teign Briwere.
Stover is the Devonshire seat of the Dukes of Somerset.
Teigngrace Canal was made by the Templars, former
lords of the manor, for carriage of pipe-clay and granite.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

TEIGNMOUTH AND DAWLISH.

TEIGNMOUTH was evidently a place of resort in Saxon
times ; and the older annalists claim it as the scene of the
first landing of the Danes. But that took place near
Weymouth in the year 787 ; and it is many a long year
after this date ere any mention can be found of Teign-
mouth. The first distinct reference to the locality appears
to be the statement that in 1001 the Danes ' burned
Tegntun and also many other good hams, . . . and peace
was afterwards made there with them.' This Tegntun
was not Teignmouth but Kingsteignton ; still there is fair
presumptive evidence that the germs, or something more
than the germs, of this pleasant little seaport then existed.
Thus much at least is clear, from a grant made by Ead-
weard the Confessor of certain lands which included what
is now East Teignmouth, that in the year 1044 there stood
at Teignmouth a church dedicated to St. Michael, while on
the bank of the estuary there were certain sheds used for
the manufacture of salt, called ' salterns.' St. Michael
stood in what was commonly recognised as the older part
of Teignmouth in the time of Leland. The old fabric
was destroyed in 1821. Its very peculiar architectural
arrangement, especially the singularly defensive character
and venerable appearance of its towers, favour the idea
that part at least of the ancient structure had remained

History of Devonshire.

from Saxon times; and that the fortress was quite as
prominent in the minds of its constructors as the church.

There have long been two Teignmouths in the one
town — East and West — and both for many centuries
belonged, the one to the See of Exeter and the other to
the Dean and Chapter. West Teignmonth was alienated
in 1549 by Bishop Veysey, and was for a time in the Cecils,
but has long been the property of the Cliffords. East
Teignmouth was sold early in the present century by the
Dean and Chapter, and is now the property of the Earl
of Devon, whose ancestors are said to have acquired the
manor of Teignmouth Courtenay temp. Edward III.

Teignmouth — speaking of the twin portions jointly —
was anciently regarded as a borough, and sent represen-
tatives to a shipping council under Edward I. The
market grant dates from 1253. The silver staff of the
portreeve has engraven thereon for arms, azure a saltire
gules between four fleur-de-lis converging. The Local
Board use a seal with the same device, and the legend :

' SIGILL BURGHI TEIGNEMUTHIENSIS, IOO2 ;' possibly the

date refers to the descent of the Danes.

Teignmouth was one of the sufferers from the forays of
the French during the Middle Ages. Stowe declares that
it was ' burnt up ' by them in 1340 ; but it is not quite
clear how that can have been, when we find it in 1347
sending seven ships and 120 sailors to the expedition
against Calais. For some centuries thereafter Teign-
mouth appears to have had an uneventful but a prosperous
career; depending largely, indeed mainly, upon fishing.
The salt with which the fish were cured continued to be
manufactured upon the spot so late as the year 1692,
operations having in all likelihood been carried on without
a break from Saxon times.

It was in 1690 that the most memorable event in the
history of Teignmouth happened. The French fleet were
lying in Torbay, where the forces of the county were

Teigmnouth and .Dawlish. 313

drawn up to oppose their landing. Taking advantage of
this, certain of the galleys battered Teignmouth, follow-
ing up a bombardment of * near two hundred great shot'
by landing 1,700 men. The inhabitants, with that dis-
cretion which is so very much the better part of valour,
fled when the attack began, so that the invaders had an
easy victory. For three hours the town was ransacked
and plundered, and then fired, 116 houses being burnt, with
eleven vessels lying in the harbour. ' Moreover,' says a
MS. record of the disaster, written by Mr. Jordan, ' to
add sacrilege to their robbery and violence, they in a
barbarous manner entered the two churches in the said
town, and in a most unchristian mariner tore the Bibles
and Common Prayer Books in pieces, scattering the leaves
thereof about the streets, broke down the pulpits, over-
threw the communion-tables, together also with many
other marks of a barbarous and enraged cruelty; and
such goods and merchandise as they could not or dare
not stay to carry away for fear of our forces, which were
marching to oppose them, they spoiled and destroyed,
killing very many cattle and hogs, which they left dead
behind them in the streets.' Something like a third of
the town was destroyed in this last invasion of Devon-
shire, and the loss sustained was computed at £11,030
6s. lod. A brief for the collection of this sum was read
in all the churches throughout the country, and the money
raised. The event is commemorated by the name French
Street, given to a part of the town destroyed and rebuilt.

However, recovery was speedy. In 1744 the inhabi-
tants, by permission of Sir William Courtenay, built a
battery on the ' Den ' at East Teignmouth ; and the port
is then said to have had a population of 4,000, and to fit
out twenty vessels for the Newfoundland trade. This
Den (= dune) is now a public lawn adjoining the beach.

Shaldon, a transfluvial suburb of Teignmouth, is partly
in Stokeinteignhead, and partly in Ringmore or St.

3 14 History of Devonshire.

Nicholas; but has no separate history of importance.
At Stokeinteignhead Church is one of the oldest brasses
in the county — to a priest, circa 1375.

At Radway, in Bishopsteignton, are the ruins of the
palace and chapel of the Bishops of Exeter, with whom
the ' Bishop's-town-on-Teign ' was for ages a favourite
retreat. This ' fair house ' was built by Bishop Grandisson
in the early part of the fourteenth century. There is little
left now to indicate the character of what the bishop him-
self, in a letter to Pope John XXII., called a beautiful
structure, and described in his will as convenient and
costly buildings. The few remains form part of a farm-
house. Comparing Bishops with Kingsteignton — the
' King's-town-on-the-Teign ' — it has been wittily observed
that the preference shown by the prelates for the more
beautiful spot of the two, shows how superior the older
bishops were in discernment. However, Bishop Veysey
had to alienate it, like West Teignmouth, in favour of
Sir Andrew Dudley, so that royalty got the upper hand
after all.

The history of Dawlish begins in the reign of Eadweard
the Confessor, with the grant in 1044 by that King of
seven manses of land to his ' worthy chaplain ' Leofric,
afterwards the first Bishop of Exeter. The grant was at
' Doflisc,' which Mr. J. B. Davidson, to whom we are
indebted for the full identification of the localities, read
as 'devil water;' and it comprised not only Dawlish
but what is now the present parish of East Teignmouth
in addition, with almost absolute exactness. Two years
later Leofric succeeded Lyfing as Bishop of Crediton,
and four years later still removed to Exeter. After the
Conquest Leofric gave these lands to St. Peter's Minster
as part of the endowments of his See. Becoming the
property of the Dean and Chapter, Dawlish was sold by
them, like East Teignmouth, early in the present century.

Teignmouth and Dawlish. 315

Hardly any town in Devon has so uneventful a history
as Dawlish. A village it remained all through the centuries,
with a fitful fishing and smuggling life, until something
like a hundred years ago its advantages as a bathing-place
gave a new direction to energies which, after all, only
needed to be encouraged. The one event in the history
of Dawlish is connected with this development. A number
of houses had been built by the side of the Dawlish Water,
which flows down the centre of the pleasant combe to the
sea, and several * improvements ' had been made, when,
on the night of November gth, 1810, a sudden torrent
descending the valley from Haldon washed everything
away. This is ' the Flood ' at Dawlish. Since then
Dawlish has enjoyed steady and substantial progress, and
has been made one of the most charming spots on the
coast. Luscombe, the seat of a branch of the Hoares
of Stourhead, a lovely domain, has a private chapel of
great richness and beauty, erected from the designs of Sir
Gilbert Scott.

Two chapels formerly existed in this parish, ruins of
which remain and to which certain traditions attach.
That at Cofton was in existence as early as 1376. Lidwell,
or Lithwyll, was dedicated to St. Mary.

In the adjoining parish of Mamhead is the seat of Sir
R. Newman. The manor passed through the Pomeroys,
Peverells, and Carews, to the Balles. Sir Peter Balle,
Recorder of Exeter and Attorney-General to Henrietta
Maria, rebuilt the house, and planted many trees. The
last member of that family erected an obelisk on Mamhead
Point in 1742, and added greatly to the beauty of the
place by his plantations. Mamhead is famed for its trees ;
and here, it is said, the ilex oak was first grown in England
from acorns. Sir Peter Balle garrisoned his house for the
King, and, as his epitaph states, ' suffered the usual fate
of loyalty.' The present house was in great part rebuilt
by Wilmot, Earl of Lisburne.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

CHUDLEIGH AND BOVEY TRACEY.

PROBABLY Chudleigh is one of the numerous Leges of
' Domesday,' and therefore not to be certainly identified,
though it may be one of the two Chiderlies of the Count
of Moreton. We first find it an appendage to the See of
Exeter, saddled with the duty of providing twelve wood-
cocks, or in lieu thereof twelve pence, for the bishop's
election dinner ; and Bishop Stapledon in 1309 obtained
the grant of a market. There was an episcopal palace,
of which a few fragments yet exist, and here it was that
Bishop Lacy died in 1455. The church had been dedi-
cated by Bronescombe in 1259. The manor was alienated
by Veysey in 1550, and came to its owners, the Cliffords,
then of their present seat of Ugbrooke, in 1695.

Ugbrooke is said to have been attached to the precentor-
ship of Exeter Cathedral until, in the sixteenth century,
it passed to Sir Peter Courtenay, by whose daughter and
coheiress, Anne, it was brought to her husband, Anthony
Clifford of Borscombe, Wilts, a younger branch of the
famous Cliffords of Cumberland. He was the ancestor of
the Ugbrooke house, the first distinguished member of
which was the celebrated Lord Treasurer, Clifford of the
Cabal (1630-1673), whom Charles in 1672 created Baron
Clifford of Chudleigh.

Chudleigh supplied quarters to Fairfax in January,

Chudleigh and Bovcy Tracey. 317

1646 ; and the only incidents of local note in its history
have been its fires. The most disastrous of these occurred
May 22, 1807, when 166 houses, nearly half the total
number, were destroyed, and damage done to the extent
of £60,000. An Act of Parliament was passed in the
following year for the more easy rebuilding of the town
and determining differences, and £21,000 was subscribed
for the relief of the poorer inhabitants.

The scenery of Ugbrooke has been justly characterized
as an epitome of that of the county ; and not far from
Chudleigh is a bold crag of limestone, called Chudleigh
Rock, in which are a couple of caverns. One of these is
associated with the folk-lore of the district as the Pixie's
Hole, and with science by having yielded remains of the
(locally) extinct cave mammalia.

Ashton was for over four centuries the residence of the
Chudleigh family, who lived at Place. The manor was
given by the Conqueror to Hervey de Helion, and held at
* Domesday ' by his wife. It came to the Chudleighs
about 1320. Sir George Chudleigh, the first baronet,
sided with the Parliament when the Civil War broke out,
and took part in the battle of Stratton. Not long after
he changed sides, and had his house garrisoned in the
Royalist interest. It was taken by a party of Fairfax's
army in December, 1645; and Colonel James Chudleigh,
Sir George's eldest son, was killed at the storming of
Dartmouth in the following month, when Place was a
garrison for the Parliament. The Chudleigh baronetcy
ended in 1745, when Sir James Chudleigh was killed at
the siege of Ostend.

Another notable Cavalier garrison in this locality was
Canonteign, or Christow ; and it, too, was stormed and
taken by Fairfax's troops in December, 1645. The
Roundhead Governor was Colonel Okey, executed at the
Restoration as a regicide. Christow belonged to the
Abbey of Bee. On the seizure of the property of the

History of Devonshire.

alien priories it passed to the Abbey of Tavistock ; and at
the Dissolution came, with other possessions of that
house, to Lord Russell. Canonteign belonged to another
alien house— that of De la Valle ; but was granted by the
fraternity, circa 1268, to Merton, Surrey. At the Dis-
solution this also came to Lord Russell. Another estate
in the parish— Pope House— belonged to the Priory of
Cowick. The manors of Christow and Canonteign, after
passing through various hands, came to the Helyars ; and
were purchased, in 1812, by Sir Edward Pellew, after-
wards created Viscount Exmouth.

Kennock Church was given to the Abbey of Torre in
the reign of Richard I. by Philip de Salmonville. Bottor
Rock, on ' the authority of the peasantry,' was a seat of
* Druidical worship.' With better grounds it is to be
regarded as a genuine hill-fort of great age. At Lustleigh
church-door is, however, an antiquity of much greater
interest — a threshold-stone of Romano-British date, in-
scribed CATVIDOC CONRINO. The Prouzes, sometime
lords of Lustleigh, are commemorated by a cross-legged
effigy of Sir Wm. Prouz, temp. Edward II. ; and there
are a couple of figures ascribed to Sir John Dynham and
his wife Emma.

Bovey Tracey has a history which, could it be fully
worked out, would in all probability throw considerable
light upon early village life in the county. The ' Domes-
day ' entry is notable ; for there can be no doubt that
this is the ' Bovi ' held by Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances,
in succession to Edric, with its 32 serfs, villeins, and
bordars, its mill, and its added lands of 15 thanes, who
retained between them two hides and half a virgate,
paying therefore four pounds and thirty pence. The
manor came to the Tracys, whence its distinctive name,
as part of the barony of Barnstaple ; and Henry Tracy
obtained grant of market and fair in 1259.. This was one

Chudleigh and Bovcy Tracey. 319

of the Devonshire manors held by Margaret of Richmond,
and has been in the Courtenays since 1747.

Bovey Heathfield is remarkable, geologically and
economically, for its deposits of clay and lignite, or wood-
coal. These are of Lower Miocene age, and fill the bed
of an ancient lake. The association of clay and coal led
to the establishment in 1772 of a pottery at Indiho (the
house is traditionally said to be of monastic origin), which
has been continued to the present time, though the lignite
is no longer used for firing.

Bovey had a ' mayor,' and a customary mayor's show,
though this officer was really the portreeve. At each annual
manor court a bailiff and portreeve were elected, and the
bailiff of one year was the portreeve of the next. The set
day for the ' mayor's riding ' was the Monday after the
3rd of May, called ' Roodmas Day ;' and to properly
discharge the duties of his office, the portreeve had the
profits of a field called ' Portreeve's Park.'

One of the few incidents of note connected with
Cromwell's visit in 1646 with Fairfax to the West of
England, occurred at Bovey Tracey. He had marched
from Tiverton through Crediton, and by the Teign valley
towards Chudleigh, and suddenly fell upon one of Lord
Wentworth's brigades at Bovey. The Royalists were all
unaware of danger, and the officers were playing cards
to pass the time, instead of keeping a sharp look-out ;
when suddenly, without warning, just as night had fallen
in, Cromwell's troopers came upon the scene. The officers
are credited with great presence of mind. Defence was
out of the question ; so they opened the windows, threw
the stakes for which they were playing among the
Roundheads, and, during the scramble for the silver,
escaped by the back-door. Not so their men, some 80
of whom were captured, besides 400 horse and several
colours. There was an end, thenceforward, of all hope
of successful resistance in the field.

CHAPTER XXXV.

MORETONHAMPSTEAD AND CHAGFORD.

UNTIL Moretonhampstead was made a railway station,
and Chagford had developed into a favourite moorland
health-resort, no two country towns in Devon had a more
thoroughly old-world character. It was within the
memory, indeed, of the late Sir John Bowring that the
only wheeled vehicle ever seen in Moretonhampstead was
a wheelbarrow, and its communications with the outer
world were either by foot, pack-horse, or pillion. The
pillion lingered on much later, and seeing that the lady,
riding behind the gentleman, had to clasp him closely for
security at any rough part of the road, it is a wonder that
with all its inconveniences it has not survived. The
custom supplied a pleasant comment for an old Devon-
shire vicar, on the text of the man who had married a wife
and could not attend the feast, ' A vain excuse, my friends
— a vain excuse ! he could have brought her behind him
on a pillion !'

There is extant an amusing but utterly absurd tradition
of the foundation of Moreton, as it is now commonly
called for brevity, by a party of Flemings in three sections,
consisting of the * Moortown,' the ' ham,' and the * stead/
It has just thus much of truth, that the place once pos-
sessed a considerable serge manufacture, in which pro-
bably Flemings had some interest. Moreton, however, is

Moretonhampstead and Chagford. 321

far older than the woollen trade, for it appears in
' Domesday ' as a royal manor, which had belonged to
Harold, to which pertained the third penny of the
hundred of Teignbridge, and which had a population of
twenty-eight. Under Edward I. the Earl of Ulster held
it by the render of a sparrow-hawk, but for several
centuries it has belonged to the Courtenays. Hugh de
Courtenay obtained a market grant in 1335. According
to the Lysonses, the manor of Daccombe, belonging to the
Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, had the custom of free
bench, and the lord was obliged to keep a cucking-stool
for the use of scolding women. An ancient Baptist
(Unitarian) Society here is traditionally said to have
existed since the reign of Mary, and to have furnished
members of the roll of martyrs. This would make it the
oldest Nonconformist congregation in the county ; but
the oldest of which the origin is certainly known is the
Baptist church at Tiverton, which dates from 1600. The
woollen manufacture and the intercourse with the Low
Countries consequent thereon, led easily to the introduc-
tion of Reformed views of religion into Devon.

A notable old poorhouse (1637) still remains at Moreton;
and a field near the church is called the Sentry, quasi-
Sanctuary.

Though the documentary evidence for the early history
of Chagford is very slight, there are sufficient proofs in
the rude-stone monuments of the locality to give it high
antiquity ; and in the traces of ancient mining to show
that its selection as a stannary town had been preceded
by long centuries of enterprise. Tin mining, indeed, was
so prominent an occupation that the tinners were tithed,
and each * spallier,' or spade labourer, paid annually his
' shovell penny.' For many a long year Chagford seems
to have steadily thriven, and to have developed a sturdy
independence of character that its comparative isolation
on the borders of Dartmoor greatly helped to maintain.

21

322 History of Devonshire.

Within a very few years it was the quaintest of all the
moorland centres ; but its greater accessibility as a summer
resort has hopelessly modernized its leading features.
Nor is this to be wondered at. So delightful are its sur-
roundings in the summer-time, and so proud are the
natives of its attractions, common rumour avers that
if a Chagford man is then asked where he lives, his sharp
retort is, ' Chagford, and what do you think ?' But in
winter, so depressed is he by the change of conditions,
the rejoinder will be ' Chaggyford, good Lord!' The
joke is an old one, but an apt illustration of the sharply
contrasted conditions of the moorland climate.

A scarce black-letter tract tells the ' True Relation of
the Accident at Chagford in Devonshire.' The market-
house fell in ' presently after dinner,' upon a ' tin court
daie,' and Mr. Eveleigh, the steward, with nine others,
died. This is the chief event in the purely local history,
and Chagford has only one link of importance with
matters of national concern. It lay too much out of the
ordinary course of traffic to be greatly moved even when
' civil dudgeon ' grew most high ; and yet it was at a
skirmish here, in 1642, that Sidney Godolphin fell.

Of the families connected with Chagford, the most im-
portant are the Prouzes and the Whyddons. The Cople-
stones at one time held the manor, and by Master Cople-
stone the markets were sold to the town in 1564. The
Gorges, too, must have had an interest in the parish, from
the frequent occurrence of their arms on the roof-bosses
in the parish church, which was originally dedicated in
1261. Chagford was then held by Thomas de Chagford,
and he, in 1299, sold it to Simon de Wibbery, whose
descendants held it for nigh two centuries. Of the
Whyddons the most notable was the eminent judge, Sir
John, Serjeant-at-Law under Edward VI., and Judge of
the Queen's Bench in the first year of Mary. He died
January 27, 1575, and his monument forms one of the

Moretonhampstead and C hag ford. 323

leading features of Chagford Church. Whyddon Park is
a stretch of broken shaggy moorland hillside descending
to the Teign.

That Gidleigh gave name to the family of Gidley is
certain, but whether it came to them by a grant from
' one Martine Duke and Earl of Cornwall ' to ' his nephew,
Giles de Gidleigh,' as Westcote affirms, may be doubted,
and certainly cannot now be proved. The family of Prouz,
who were associated with the manor and built a castle
here in early Edwardian times, of which the shell yet
remains, are said to have acquired it by marriage with
the heiress of Giles de Gidleigh ; and, as one of the
Prouzes is stated to have been steward to Richard, King
of the Romans, it is not difficult to see how Westcote's
story may have arisen. After the line of Prouz and
their successors had long passed away, a Gidley, if not
the Gidley family, came back again, and for awhile the
manor was once more in the old name. Bartholomew
Gidley (died 1686) was a local Royalist leader of note.

The district is one of the chief centres of the Druid-
ical superstition of last-century antiquaries and their
followers. Holy Street, in Gidleigh, giving title to the
mill first painted by Creswick, and since his day by
hundreds of artists, has been regarded as a Druidical
via sacra purely on the score of its name, which in all
probability indicates simply an ancient ' hollow ' road.
But this via sacra is very mild etymology when com-
pared with the arguments used by Polwhele to prove
Drewsteignton a Druidical 'capital,' by reading it ' Druid's-
town-on-Teign.' Drewsteignton, as such, is not to be
found in ' Domesday ;' but from the extent of woodland
is probably the Taintone held by Baldwin the Sheriff, in
succession to Offers. The prefix unquestionably comes
from Drogo or Drewe, who held the manor in the
reigns of Henry II. and Richard I.

The place has, however, substantial claims to anti-
quarian celebrity. Here stands, on a farm called Shil-

21 — 2

324 History of Devonshire.

stone, the only cromlech left in Devon, which once formed
the central feature of a group of stone circles and avenues.
It fell in January, 1862, and was ' restored ' in the same
year. Though the ' quoit ' is two feet thick, fifteen in
length, and ten in breadth, a builder and a carpenter of
Chagford, by the aid of pulleys and a screw-jack, re-
placed it at a cost of £20 ; and thus very much reduced
the vague wonder that commonly attaches to the erection
of such structures. The village tradition is that the
' Spinster's Rock,' as it is called, was erected by three
spinsters one morning before breakfast ; and these have
been suggested as the Valkyriur. Bradford Pool close by,
with the cromlech, and with a logan stone in the bed of
the Teign, at Whyddon Park, have all been ' prayed in aid '
of the Druidical hypothesis : but the pool is only a col-
lection of water in an old mining excavation, and the
logan, like scores of others on the adjacent moors, is of
purely natural origin. It is quite possible that Shilstone
estate took name from the cromlech as ' Shelfstone ;' and
there was a Selvestan held by Osbern de Salceid in suc-
cession to Edric, which would suit the locality, and which
is moreover remarkable for having adjacent a virgate of
land that nobody — nemo — held T.R.E.

There is other evidence in the fine hill-forts of Cran-
brook and Prestonbury, which command the gorge of
the Teign at Fingle Bridge, that the neighbourhood was
an important one in Keltic times.

Great Fulford, in the parish of Dunsford, has been the
seat of the notable family of Fulford, literally from ' time
immemorial ;' and of no other house in Devon can it be
suggested with so much probability that

" When the Conqueror came it was at home."
Direct history, at least, takes us back to the reign of
Richard I. ; and ' Domesday ' shows a connection with
the manor of Bovi, already cited as being held by Geoffrey,
Bishop of Coutances, and as having attached thereto the

Moretonhampstead and Chagford. 325

lands of fifteen thanes. One of the estates held by these
thanes is Filauefford ; so that there is good evidence in
1086 that the Saxon owners of Great Fulford had not been
dispossessed ; while the parent stock of Fulfords were
certainly there within a century. The other Foleford of
' Domesday,' held by Motbert under Baldwin the Sheriff,
was a small manor, identifiable with Little Fulford in
Shobrooke. Be all this as it may, among the most dis-
tinguished Crusaders of the West were Sir William, Sir
Baldwin, and Sir Armas de Fulford. In the Wars of the
Roses the Fulfords took the Lancastrian side ; and Su
Baldwin, who fought at Towton, was beheaded at Hexham,
in 1461. But the family remained true, and his son, Sir
Thomas, was attainted for espousing the cause of the
Earl of Richmond, in 1483. He also took part in the
relief of Exeter, when it was besieged by Perkin Warbeck,
in 1497. The forfeiture only lasted a couple of years.

In the Wars of the Commonwealth, as was to be ex-
pected, the Fulfords were staunch Royalists ; and Colonel,
subsequently Sir Francis, Fulford made Fulford a royal
garrison. His son Thomas was killed in the service ; and
in December, 1645, the house was taken by Fairfax, and
placed under the command of Colonel Okey. The mansion
is, in the main, Elizabethan, and contains a royal recog-
nition of the family loyalty in a portrait of Charles I.

Near the village of Manaton is a curious pile of rocks,
called ' Bowerman's Nose,' the natural effect of weather-
ing upon cubical -jointed granite. This has been deemed
a rock idol, and held to have taken name from a certain
Bowerman, who, according to a supposed ' Domesday *
entry that no one has been able to find since it was fi st
' discovered ' half a century since, held the manor. But
Bowerman is only the Keltic Veor (niaur) maen = ihe
* great rock,' as Manaton is Maen y dun = the ' rocky hill.'

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DARTMOOR.

THE great central waste of Devon, itself as large as many
a county, has a history of its own. Its features are now
so marked that we are apt to regard it as having always
borne its distinctive character ; and much error has arisen
by reasoning from this false premise. Gaunt and bare
the higher regions of Dartmoor were throughout the
Stone and Bronze periods, and so are still ; but its
valleys and outskirts, in the days of its most ancient
dwellers, were indistinguishable in natural characteristics
from the county at large. Woods and heaths, broken
only in their gloomy monotony by strips of water-made
meadow skirting the wider river-courses, were the lead-
ing features, not of Dartmoor and its borders only, but of
all Devonia ; and the scanty population was scattered in-
differently through its wilds. Dartmoor is simply the last
refuge of the traces of these ancient days — a prehistoric
island, girdled and wasted by the encroaching waves of
an aggressive civilization. The very name is a proof of
later differentiation. Dunmonia, Deuffnynt, the * Land
of Hills,' or the ' Land of Deep Valleys,' whichever may
be accepted as the parent of the modern ' Devon/ are but
two modes of expressing the same physical features, the
ancient names of Dartmoor and the shire alike. Only
when clearing and enclosure had given an artificial

Dartmoor. 327

character to the lowlands did the upland country receive
its distinctive name. The fact that the Saxons called the
north of Devon the North Hams (ham = dwelling), and the
south the South Hams, is a proof of the unpeopled
character of Dartmoor in the Saxon period ; and it is at
least possible, indeed very probable, that the majority
of the British settlements on Dartmoor, the traces of
which still exist, were formed by the Kelts as they were
pushed back by the encroachments of the Saxon colonists.
Moreover, Dartmoor is a name that must have been given
by men who were more familiar with the Dart than with
any other of the numerous rivers that descend from its
plateau on all sides. The early history of Dartmoor is
very far as yet from having been fully traced. Passed
over in ' Domesday,' not afforested with certainty until
the twelfth century, there appears good evidence that it is
the remnant of an extended area of national or folk-land.
A peculiar right of commonage continues known as
Venville tenure — which is accompanied also by feudal
service — enjoyed by residents in the parishes skirting the
Moor. And this in all likelihood dates from Saxon times
(wang = field in Saxon, and Wangefield is an early form of
Venville), and represents the rights of common which the
Saxon dwellers in the border district had enjoyed over
the moorliind waste, and which, maintained after the
Conquest, have descended to the present day.

But we are here dealing with a comparatively modern
period in the history of Dartmoor. This great waste has
been pronounced by Mr. Lukis unrivalled in this country
in the extent and character of its rude-stone monuments
— its menhirs, lines, circles, huts, trackways, pounds. No
doubt, like the barrows, with which these remains are in
part contemporary, the construction of these primitive
structures did continue even beyond the dawn of historic
times ; but they too, like the barrows, stretch back into a
grey antiquity, the dimness of which we cannot penetrate.

328 History of Devonshire.

The ' hut-rings ' are small circular heaps of stones
which formed the foundations of rude dwellings ; the
* pounds ' are much larger enclosures, which commonly
surround or are associated with the rings. Both are found
in considerable numbers in almost every part of the Moor.
We have here dwellings and fortified or protected villages,
but with little to date them by. Hovels as rude, and
erected much upon the same plan, may be seen on the Moor
now. These traces of ancient habitation are very frequent
on the slopes overlooking the Dartmoor rivers, the beds
of which have been 'streamed,' as it is called, for tin, and
here represent the settlements of the ancient tinners,
stretching in some cases with little interval for miles along
the valleys. But if the hut-rings merge into the rude moor-
land dwellings of our own day in one direction, on the
other they are linked with relics of which no tradition
preserves the purpose — with ' menhirs ' and ' lines,' or
'avenues,' with the so-called 'sacred circles,' and the
' cromlechs,' all or nearly all of which appear to be con-
nected with, or to mark, interments.

One of the most notable groups of these remains is at
Merrivale Bridge, where there are large numbers of hut
and other rings, associated with stone avenues, or ' paral-
lelitha,' and upright stones, or ' menhirs.' The series is
commonly known by the name of the Plague Market, from
a tradition that they were used as a market when Tavi-
stock was attacked by the plague. The stones of these
' avenues ' are small, and this is the case with most of the
others, which are commonly associated with well-defined
and accepted sepulchral monuments. Too much impor-
tance, however, has been attached to this special class
of remains ; there are ancient stone-faced hedges on Dart-
moor, which, when the earth is removed, present ' avenues '
precisely identical with those of Merrivale, and ' track-
lines or boundary banks,' primitive fences, are common
wherever there are traces of ancient habitation.

Dartmoor. 329

On Torhill, near the great central 'trackway' — the
ancient Fosseway, traversing the Moor from east to west
— are traces of an extensive settlement, possibly the
Ravennat's Termonin.

The finest ' pound ' on the Moor is the enclosed and
fortified village of Grimspound, on the flank of Hamildon,
which gives the structural relics of an ancient settlement
in an almost perfect state. The only cromlech in the
county is that at Drewsteignton, already described. The
word ' cromlech,' by the way, has always been applied in
the West of England to what is more generally known to
archaeologists as a ' dolmen/ Of the ordinary cromlechs,
or ' circles ' of detached stones, Dartmoor supplies several
examples. The largest is the Grey Wethers, near Sit-
taford Tor. Commonly called sacred circles, and frequently
classed with the rude-stone monuments generally as
' Druidical,' the fact yet remains that they are always
either definitely associated with interments, or presumably
so; while neither Devonshire nor the West of England,
except in the active imaginations of the antiquaries of
the last century and their followers, has ever yielded a
scrap of evidence to connect them with the supposed
Druidical priesthood, whose existence in Britain depends
upon the hearsay report of Caesar. The really historic
Druids of the Kelts were simple ' medicine-men ;' or, as
Mr. W. C. Borlase defines them, ' magicians and white
witches ;' and neither history, tradition, nor folk-lore
yields any trace of their existence in the West.

The commonest form of presumed Druidical memorial
on Dartmoor is the ' rock basin.' The granite crests of
the hills of the moorland, known as ' tors,' are dotted
with hollows of various sizes, which were held to have
been hewn out by the Druids, either to catch the blood of
their victims sacrificed on imaginary altar stones, or to
collect the pure waters from heaven for their religious or
magical rites. Unluckily the geologist has decided that

History of Devonshire.

these basins — and some are of very remarkable dimen-
sions—are of natural origin ; and the Druids have never
recovered from the shock. It is the same with the
rocking or ' logan ' stones. These are simply masses of
weathered granite, nicely poised by the cunning hand of
nature. Of many such upon Dartmoor, perhaps the best
example is the * Nutcrackers ' at Lustleigh Cleave.

The geology of Dartmoor, indeed, has had a very
marked influence upon its archaeology. In the main it is
a great granitic plateau, broken by numerous valleys, and
dotted with the rocky peaks of the ' tors.' The granite is
jointed, often with considerable regularity, and weathers
into masses and piles irresistibly suggestive of Cyclopean
masonry ; while the hillsides are bestrewn for miles with
huge boulders and blocks. These supplied the material
of the ancient hut-circles and pounds, and they supply thfi
material also of modern dwellings and boundaries, which
have thence a rude and massive character. So with the
moorland churches. Built almost wholly of granite —
wall and mullion, tracery and pillar, crocket and arch —
they have a style peculiarly their own, based upon the
rugged and intractable stone of which they are reared.

Some of the most remarkable features in the history of
Dartmoor are associated with its mining enterprise. Tin-
mining in Devon and in Cornwall not only dates from a
period of very remote antiquity, beyond the dawn of history,
but the earliest records present it in the light of an orga-
nized industry carried on by men who formed a kind of
corporation, bound to certain duties, and endowed with
certain privileges. Originally the whole of the tin-miners
of Devon and of Cornwall formed one body, and met for
the regulation of their affairs upon Kingston Down.
Later the two counties were divided, and the tinners of
Devon had their own * parliament ' — as it was called —
meeting in the open-air on Crockern Tor, which rises in
the heart of the ancient mining district, immediately

Dartmoor. 331

above Two Bridges. So far as history extends, the tin-
mining areas of the West of England — the Stannaries —
have always been an appanage of the Crown, passing to
the Duchy of Cornwall upon its creation ; but this
gathering upon ' deserted Crockern ' carries us back long
before the Conquest, to the primitive assemblies at least
of our Saxon forefathers. Toll of tin used to be paid to
the Crown or to the Duchy, and for the collection of this
toll it was enacted that all tin should be weighed and
' coined ' at certain Stannary towns. The coinage con-
sisted simply in striking off a corner (Fr. coin} of each
block to ascertain its character, and in stamping it with
the royal or Duchy arms in token that the quality was
right and the dues paid. The earliest Stannary record
dates in 1197, when some such system had evidently been
long in operation. Chagford, Ashburton, and Tavistock,
the oldest-named coinage towns, are mentioned as such
two years later. John granted the tinners a charter in
1201 ; and in 1305 Edward I. recognised the separation
of the tinners of Devon and Cornwall as two distinct
bodies, and appointed Lydford as the Stannary prison for
Devon. Not long after this Plympton became one of the
coinage towns. The system of tin coinage continued in
force with little variation until abolished by Act of
Parliament in 1838. Under the old Stannary laws the
tinners had very remarkable powers, extending so far in
Devon as the right to dig for tin in any man's land,
withe at tribute or satisfaction ; and it is probable that
the Crockern Tor Parliament was quite as much con-
cerned in the assertion of these rights against the public
as in regulating internal concerns. There was one rather
serious provision against adulteration of tin, but with
that exception the tinners had matters well-nigh their
own way. The adulterator had a certain number of
spoonfuls of the melted metal poured down his throat !
The Parliament which sat on Crockern Tor consisted of

332 History of Devonshire.

twenty-four ' Stannators ' from each of the four Stannaries
of the county, elected in the court of that Stannary. It met
when summoned by the Lord Warden, and was generally
presided over by the Vice- Warden. Seats were wrought
in the living granite (unhappily almost every vestige is
now destroyed), and here under the open canopy of
heaven the ancient court for centuries did its work. In
later days luxury crept in, and it was held sufficient to
open commission and swear-in the jurors upon the bleak
hill-crest, and then adjournment was made to one of the
Stannary towns. These Parliaments ceased to be held
early in the last century, though the local Stannary courts
survived. At that time — and probably there had been no
deviation from the ancient practice — the election of the
jurats was by universal Stannary suffrage, all tinners, tin-
bounders, owners of tin and works, and adventurers in
the same, and all spalyers or labourers, and other persons
concerned in tin or tin works, being summoned to be
personally present and take part in the election. The
Stannary Court (reformed) is now held at Truro, dealing
with mines generally within the old Stannary district, and
not simply with those of tin. The judge is the Vice-
Warden. We have here, then, an example of the
continuance of an ancient local law court from times
beyond record. It is quite possible that the court of the
Stannaries is the oldest extant jurisdiction in the kingdom.
The forest of Dartmoor has always been appendant,
from the earliest record, to the royal manor of Lydford ;
and long continued wholly within Lydford parish. There
are records of the perambulations of the forest, and of
the forest boundaries, as early as 1240. All lands in
Devonshire, except Dartmoor and Exmoor, had been
disafforested by John in 1203 or 1204 ; but Dartmoor was
rigidly preserved, and there appears to be good incidental
evidence of the rigorous manner in which the savage forest
laws were enforced in the old saying anent ' Lydford law,'
already noted. The term ' forest ' must be understood

Dartmoor. 333

strictly in the legal sense. Dartmoor at present contains
one patch of ancient woodland — Wistman's Wood, near
Two Bridges — a wild, weird grove of stunted oaks of vast
antiquity springing among granite blocks; but though
evidently once much more wooded than now, the greater
part of the moorland area must always have been rocky
and barren. Wistman's Wood has been read 'the Wood
of Wisemen,' i.e., Druids. There is little doubt it is the
Keltic uisg-maen-coed= ' the rocky wood by the water.'

The most important step in the history of the Moor
was taken when, early in the present century, Prince
Town, the moorland capital, was founded, at the sug-
gestion of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Lord Warden, by the
erection of a prison for the accommodation of the French
prisoners of war, then crowding the hulks at Plymouth
Dock. While the war lasted, Prince Town — named from
the Prince Regent — throve and grew ; when the war
ceased, the prison and the houses which had sprung up
around it were deserted, and the little town fell into ruin.
At one time an attempt was made to utilize the prison
for manufacturing purposes, by adapting it to the distilla-
tion of naphtha from the peat ; but this did not prove
commercially successful, and the place was again aban-
doned, until the present convict establishment was formed
in 1855. The prison farm shows of what Dartmoor is
really capable. Not far distant is a good example of what
is called on the Moor a 'clapper bridge,' of unknown
antiquity, slabs of granite on piled piers of granite blocks.

A cross upon a pedestal raised on a basement of three
steps, which stood on the Moor near Fox Tor, popularly
bore the name of Childe's Tomb ; and was said to have
been erected in memory of a luckless hunter of that name,
who perished in a snow-storm at or near the spot. The
structure was perfect seventy years since. The legend
is a very curious one, and while it cannot be accepted as
historic fact, does seem to embody some traces of Teutonic

.334 His lory of Devonshire.

myth. Risdon mentions Childe's Tomb as one of the
three wonders of the Moor (Crockern Tor and Wistman's
Wood are the others) ; and the story, as commonly ac-
cepted, is that Childe lived at Plymstock ; that being over-
taken by a snow-storm, he killed and disembowelled his
horse, and crept into the cavity for warmth ; and finally
wrote the following couplet in blood and died :

'The fyrste that fyndes and brings me to my grave,
The lands of Plymstoke they shal have.' °

And then it is told how the monks of Tavistock and
the people of Plymstock both heard of the sad event ;
how the monks obtained the body, and were bringing
it to their Abbey, when they heard that the Plymstock
men were lying in ambush to take it from them at a ford
on the Tavy ; and how they had a bridge built out of
the usual track and so evaded their rivals, whence the
bridge was called ' Guile Bridge.' And thus, it is said,
the Abbey of Tavistock obtained the rich Manor of Plym-
stock. The baselessness of the whole ingenious fabric is
proved by the fact that the Manor of Plymstock belonged
to the Abbey of Tavistock before the Conquest, some
centuries before the date assigned to Childe ; but apart
from this, the story as it stands is inconsistent and im-
possible. The delay that must have taken place in the
removal to enable the Plymstock people to learn of the
death in time to intercept the monks ; the fact that Guile
Bridge really replaced a ford to the Abbey, on the direct
road to the Abbey Church ; the inadequacy of the time
at disposal for building such a structure, and its unneces-
sary character, seeing that the river could be forded —
each of these points in itself is sufficient to show the
unhistoric character of the legend. The ' Guile ' is
manifestly a corruption.

0 Or : * He that finds and brings me to my tomb,
The Land of Plemstock shall be his doom/

CHAPTER XXXVII.

DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE.

WEST-COUNTRY English has a very peculiar interest in its
historical relations. It was not merely in the spirit of
enthusiasm that Charles Kingsley, himself by accident of
birth a Devonshire man, exclaimed, ' Glorious West-
Country ! you must not despise their accent, for it is the
remains of a nobler and purer dialect than our own.'
Devonshire speech, in fact — as one of its greatest living
masters, Mr. F. T. Elworthy, has shown — is * the true
classic English/ ' We all know that the English of
Alfred's time, or, as it is called, the Anglo-Saxon, is the
groundwork upon which our modern English has been
built up. But Alfred's own variety was in his day the
polite, the courtly, the only recognised literary — in fact,
the standard form of speech ; and Alfred was, as we all
know, a West-Country man, speaking in West- Country,
most likely Devonshire style.' Csedmon and Beda had
long passed away, and until the year noo the language of
Alfred remained the only written English.

From about noo to the beginning of the fourteenth
century Southern English still held a prominent position
in the vernacular literature of the country, though several
writers in the Midland dialect from time to time arose. In
the fourteenth century, however, a change came. Wycliffe
and Chaucer, writing in their own Midland dialect, not

History of Devonshire.

only reasserted * the dignity of the despised language of
the common people,' but made the form of English in
which they wrote ' the recognised model of the English
language.' There was no writer of Southern English to
assert its claims to recognition at this critical period.
The book language, which they modelled and partially
created by the help of the printing press, quickly sup-
planted all the other forms. ' From that time forward
the language of our great Saxon King was only repre-
sented by the spoken words of our West-Country fore-
fathers. . . . Thus . . . the modern courtly dialect, now
considered to be the correct English, is the descendant
of what, in Alfred's time, was, by the then* educated
classes, held as much below the recognised standard,
as our West-Country talk is now reckoned by dwellers
in Park Lane and Belgravia.' Only once since those days
has the good broad Saxon dialect of Devon been held
in court favour : and that was in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, whose greatest heroes spake with the tongue
of their fathers, and were not ashamed ; and who made
its rugged sounds dear to all who valued stoutness of
heart and unquenchable courage of soul, and specially to
the ' Great Eliza ' herself. Even then, however, the
dialect had its share of ridicule, as the vain efforts of
Shakspere and his fellow-dramatists to reproduce it on
the stage show. It is amusing to note how they thus —
Shakspere and Jonson more especially — created a false
rustic dialect which has continued to the present day upon
the stage, but is known nowhere else.

There is a very interesting monument of the old
Devonshire speech of the fourteenth century, in the
English translation of ' Sir Ferumbras,' printed by the
Early English Text Society in 1879. This poem was
undoubtedly written by a Devonshire man in his own
native tongue, though, in some way or other, he had
become well acquainted with the use of Northern forms.

Dialect and Folk-JLore. 337

Throughout the work there are found the marks which
still ' bewray the speech ' of the true Devonian, whose
language has not been reduced to the dull dead-level of
the village school, with its artificial and unhistoric pro-
prieties. Mr. Elworthy amusingly points out that * Sir
Perumbras ' shows it to have been as true five centuries
ago as now, in popular proverbial parlance, that in Devon
' Everything is he except a Tom-cat, and that's a she.'

In a scientific point of view the chief feature of ' Sir
Ferumbras ' is, however, the manner in which it has
enabled Dr. Murray to solve the vexed problem of the
Devonshire ' min or mun = them,' which is one of the most
notable peculiarities of the dialect, and which, while
thoroughly familiar in Devon, is unknown, except in the
mouth of Devonshire folk, beyond its borders. This
1 min ' is really derived from a word which appears in the
poem as hymen, hymyn, hemen, a third person plural dative
and accusative, specialized from the singular by an added
' en.' The need of this arose from the fact that while
in the Northern and Midland dialects in the fourteenth
century the dative and accusative singular was hem,
as now, and the p\ura.\hem and heom, in the West hem stood
for both numbers, and was pluralized by the 'en,' as in
German added to ihr to form a plural accusative.

The true native dialect is most marked at the present
day in the Dartmoor district, in the remoter localities oi
the North and West, and in the heart of the South
Hams. The dialect of the East of the county is not so
distinctive, from the more frequent admixture of Somerset
and Dorset variations, though these counties generally
share with Devon the possession of the old West Saxon
speech. Along the line of the Tamar Cornish influence
is manifest. This is most marked in Plymouth and
Devonport, which are sometimes called the ' Cornish-
man's London,' and which have drawn large numbers,
chiefly of the working classes, from that county. Here

22

History of Devonshire.

also the existence of an Irish quarter has had some effect.
The popular speech of Exeter is almost purely Devonian,
and there are many parishes in which the customary talk
of the villagers would be nearly, if not quite, unintelligible
to those who are only familiar with modern and polite,
but are ignorant of ancient and historic, English.

The Keltic element is seen in the nomenclature of the
county, but not in any special sense in common speech.
It occurs chiefly in the names of the rivers, which supply
indications also of the existence of different Keltic dialects.
All the larger rivers have Keltic names ; so have those of
the middle class ; and it is only when we come to the
smaller streams that the Saxon can be traced. Minor
affluents had no distinctive name in early Keltic times,
nor would they receive any until the county was more
thickly populated. The most remarkable river group is
that which contains the Tamar, Tavy, Taw, Torridge,
and Teign — all unquestionably related and all based upon
one root-word for water, ta or tau, with varying suffixes
for the purpose of definition. Thus Tamar is Ta-maur,
the ' big water ;' Tavy, Ta-vean, the ' little water.' In the
Exe and the Axe we have the Gaelic uisg, again ' water ' ;
and in Avon, afon, one of the commonest Kymric words
for a river. Dart is the same name as Derwent, derivable
from the old Kornu- Keltic Dwr-gwyn, the ; white river ' or
water. Dwr also appears in the Derle and the Deer,
and probably in Otter, as ydwr = 'ihe water.' These are
merely suggestive hints, for the subject is far too wide to
be treated in detail here. A few Saxon names may, how-
ever, be mentioned. L,yn = hlynn, a 'stream.' In Lyd
we have hlyd = 'loud.' Yeo is the Saxon ea = ' water.' A
point of considerable importance as indicative of the
varied character and origin of the Teutonic immigration,
is the fact of the grouping of such common names for
small streams, as brook, burn, beck, bourn, lake, water,
and fleet. This is seen remarkably, as Mr. C. Spence

Dialect and Folk-Lore. 339

Bate has shown, in connection with the Dartmoor river
basins, distinguishing those of adjoining streams from
each other in a singularly definite and constant manner.

The folk-lore of Devon would take a volume to itself.
With one exception it is thoroughly Teutonic. This
exception is the Devonshire Pixy, who is not quite
the northern Elf, but still less the southern Fairy.
Cornish tradition is peculiar in its tales of giants, but
these are unknown in Devon save through modern
importation, while the Pixies are in large part common
property. They are now said to be the souls of un-
baptized children, but seem to represent the defeated
Kelts, in some vague fashion. Similar stories are told of
them as are current of the Brownie and the Elf; so that
while the foundation is probably Keltic, the superstructure
is Saxon — as with many of the local weather and other
rhymes — and of the widest national type. One of the
most prevalent phases of the ' Pixy cult ' still extant is
the practice of turning garments inside out as a remedy
against being ' Pixy-led ' after nightfall.

The 'Wish Hounds' of Dartmoor, and the 'Yeth
Hounds ' of North Devon, are the ' Gabriel Hounds ' of
Durham and Yorkshire ; ' the ' Wild Hunt ' of Germany ;
the ' Yule Host ' of Iceland ; the ' Hunt Macabe ' in parts
of France ; while there is evidence of the later importation
of this wild fancy into Cornwall in the form it assumes
about Polperro, of the ' Devil and his Dandy Dogs.'

Whately's statement that ' the vulgar in most parts of
Christendom are continually serving the gods of their
heathen ancestors,' is literally true in the West. Living
animals have been burnt alive in sacrifice within memory
to avert the loss of other stock. The burial of three
puppies ' brandise-wise ' in a field is supposed to rid
it of weeds. Throughout the rural districts of Devon
witchcraft is an article of current faith, and the toad is
thrown into the flames as an emissary of the evil one.

22 — 2

History of Devonshire.

There are still to be found those who believe that the
sun dances on Easter morning ; those who, when they
see the new moon, half in jest and half in earnest, wish
and courtesy, and turn the money in their pockets ; and
those, too, who would not dare to insult the moon by
pointing at her, for fear of some terrible revenge on the
part of the offended luminary. The ship -carrying in
honour of the crescent moon, adapted from paganism into
Christian custom, which formed the central feature of the
Corpus Christi pageant in mediaeval Plymouth, has con-
tinued to the present day as a May-day ' garland.' A
tradition that the mines on Dartmoor were worked when
wolves and winged serpents dwelt in the valleys, may be
connected with serpent worship, or may allude to the
inroads of Norsemen in their { sea-snakes.' To a Teutonic
origin are to be traced a number of superstitions con-
nected with the ash, the most vital of which is the passage
of a ruptured child through a split ash sapling, the parts
of which are then brought together again.

A very curious illustration of the growth of compara-
tively modern folk-lore is supplied by the remarkable set of
legends which have been associated with the name of Sir
Francis Drake. It is said that he brought the Plymouth
Leat into that town by ' art magic,' compelling a Dartmoor
spring to follow his horse's tail as he galloped ahead ; that
he made fire-ships for the destruction of the Armada by
throwing chips of wood from Plymouth Hoe into Plymouth
Sound ; that he ' shot the gulf ' which divided this upper
world from the antipodes by a pistol ; that he threw a
boy overboard because cleverer than himself; that he
fired a cannon ball through the earth to prevent his wife
committing bigamy; that he rises to his revels if you
beat his old drum ; and that he offered to make Tavistock
a magical seaport !

INDEX.

ABBOT'S WAY, 284

Abbotsham, 150

Acland family, 46

Acland, Sir T. D.: 46

Act of Uniformity, 33

yEdelstan's expulsion of the Britons, 9

Albemarle, Duke of, 160

yElfryth, 181

Alvington, 248

Apaunaris, 292

Appledore, 148

Artavia, 116

Ashburton, 277 ; Guild of St. Lawrence,

278 ; discovery in church, 280
Ashburton, Lord, 279
Ashbury, 164
Ash-tree folk-lore, 287
Ashton, 317
Ashe, 65
Atherington, 113
Audley, Lord, 124
Axminster, 60 ; carpets, 63
Axmouth, 70
Ayshford, 100

Babbage, Charles, 263

Bagge, Sir James, 233

Baldwin, Archbishop, 40

Balle, Sir Peter, 315

Bampfylde family, 46

Bampton, 98

Bampton, John de, 99

Baring family, 43

Barlynch Abbey, 99

Barnstaple, 116 ; priory, 117 ; bridge,

117 ; guilds, 119 ; Huguenots, 121 ;

pottery, 122

Barrows and barrow-builders, 2
Basset, Col. Arthur, 127
Bastard family, 239
Bath, Sir Henrv, 170
Bath barton folk-lore, 171

Beeke, Dean, 310

Beer, 73 ; freestone, 73

Beer Alston, 199

Beer Ferrers, 198 ; mines, 199

Benson, Thomas, 140

Berry, Sir John, 99

Berry Narbor, 131

Berry Pomeroy Castle, 263

Bickleigh, 198

Bicton, 76

Bideford, 141 ; bridge, 145 ; witchcraft,

146

Bigbury, 244
Bishops Clyst, 53
Bishops Tawton, 123
Bishopsteignton, 314
Blachford, 237

Bloody Assize, 45, 62,69, 261
Bluett, Col. F., 100
Blundell, Peter, 94
Bodley family, 40
Bodley, Sir Thomas, 41
Boniface, St. , 108
Bonvile family, 67
Bonvile, Lord, 67
Borough, Steven, 148
Borough English, 127
Bottor Rock, 318
Bourchier family, 126
Bovey Tracey, 318
Bovey basin, discoveries in, 309
Bovey lignite, 319
Bowerman's Nose, 325
Bowring, Sir John, 42
Bracton, Henry de, 164
Bradfield House, 88
Bradley, 306
Bradmere Pool, 324
Bradninch, 89
Brampford Speke, 44
Brannock, legend of St., 126
Branscombe, 77

342

History of Devonshire.

Braunton, 126

Breakwater at Plymouth, 221

Brent, 284

Brent Tor, 191

Brian, Sir Guy de, 289

Bridestowe, 169

Britte, Wa'ter, 237

Briwere, Wm. de, 293

Brixham, 301 ; lords and ladies, 302

landing of William of Orange, 302
Brixton, 256
Broad Clysr, 53
Broarihembury, 82
Brockedon, Wm., 263
Broke, de, 198
Bronze Period, 3
Browne, Wm., 189
Brutus the Trojan, 254
Brutus Srone, 254
Bryant, the mythologist, 222
Buckfastleigh, 283
Buckfastleigh Abbey, 281
Buckland-in-the-Moor, 284
Buckland, West, 104
Buckland Monachorum, 194
Buckland Abbey, 194
Budleigh, East, 51
Budleigh Salterton, 51
Budleigh pebbles, 51
Buller family, 302
Bulmer, Sir'Bevis, 131
Bulteel family, 244
Burlescombe, 101

Cadbury Castle, 96

Cadover, 230

Canonleigh Nunnery, 100

Canonteign, 317

Carew family, 83

Carew, John, Lord Deputy, 83

Carew, Thomas, 83

Carew, Bampfylde Moore, 96

Cary family, 295

Gary, Chief Baron, 295

Cary, Sir George, 296

Carys of Clovelly, 151

Castle Hill, 103

Cavalier rising at South Molton, 25

Chagford, 321

Champernowne family, 240

Chichester family, 125

Childe the hunter, 333

Christow, 317

Chittlehampton, 113

Chudleigh, 316

Chudleigh family, 317

Chudleigh, Sir George, 317

Chulmleigh, 112 ; prebend myth, 112

Churchstow, 245

Cider, 285

Clayhanger, 99

Clifford family, 316

Clifford, Lord Treasurer, 316

Clovelly, 151

Clovelly Dikes, 150

Clyst Valley, 53

Clysthydon, 53

Clyst, St. George, 53

Cockington, 293

1 Codex Exoniensis,' 31

Coffin family, 150

Coffin, Sir William, 150

Cogan, Sir Milo, 99

Colcombe, 68

Coleridge family, 85

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 85

Colyford, 70

Colyton, 68

Combe Martin, 131 ; silver lead-mines

131 ; curious custom, 132
Compton Castle, 301
Cookworthy, Wm., 247
Coplestone Oak, 200
Coplestone Cross, no
Coplestone family, in
Corinaeus and Goemagot, 204
Cornwood, 236
Cornworthy Priory, 266
Corp brasses, 272
Cosway, Richard, 95
Countesbury, 133
Countess Weir, 37
Courtenay family, 56
Courtenay, Lord Edward, 57
Coverdale, Myles, 301
Cowick Priory, 44
Cowley, Hannah, 95
Cranch, John, 43
Cranmore Castle, 96
Crediton, 21, 105 ; bishopric of, 105 ;

cathedral, 106
Crediton, barns of, 21
Crispin, Thomas, 247
Crocker family, 239
Crockern Tor, 330
Cross, John, 96
Crosse, Richard, 96
Croyde ' flint iactory,' 127
Cruwys family, m
Cullompton, 87
Culmstock, 88
Cutclifte, John, 130
Cyneheard, 60
Cynewulf, conquest of Devon, 8

Darlington, 264

Dartmoor, 326 ; Venville tenure, 327 ;
rude stone monuments, 327 ; track-
ways, 329 ; hut circles, 328 ; pounds,
329 ; rock basins, 329 ; geology, 330 ;
mining, 330 ; forest laws, 332 ; tradi-
tions, 333

Dartmouth, 267 ; ' shippeman," 270 ;
invasion, 271 ; sieges, 274 ; worthies,
272, 275

Davey, Rev. Wm., 166

Index.

343

Davis, John, 272

Dawlish, 314 ; 'flood,' 315

Dean Prior, 265

Dedication feasts, 290

Denbury Fair, 290

Devonport, 224 ; dockyard, 224

Devonshire, ' Good Earl ' of, 93

Dialect, 335 ; Keltic and Teutonic
elements in place-names, 338

Dinant family, 152

Dodbrooke, 246

Doddridge, Sir John, 124

Dolbury Hill, 96

Domesday Hundreds, n

Doones of Badgery, 134

Drakes of Ashe, 65

Drakes of Nutwell, 53

Drakes of Prattshide, 48

Drake, Sir Francis, 187

Drake myths, 340

Drewsteignton, 323

Drewsteignton cromlech, 324

' Druidical ' monuments, 32 ; supersti-
tions, 323-329

Duckworth, Sir T. , 52

Dundonald, Lord, 80

Dunkeswell Abbey, 89

Dunmonii, 5

Duntze family 43

D'Urfey, Tom, 42

Durnford family, 227

Eadulph, first Saxon Bishop of Devon,

I05

Early history, i

Earthworks in East Devon, 59

East Budleigh, 57

Eastlake, Sir C. L. , 223

Ecclesiastical history, 27

Ecgberht's conquest of Devon, 8

Eddystone lighthouses, 221

Edgcumbe family, 193

Edmonds, Sir Thomas, 222

Eggesford, 113

Elford family, 197

Elf rid a, 181

Ercedekne. Sir John, 309

Erie, Sir Walter, 71

Ermington, 242

Exanmutha, 47

Exeter Assembly, 34

Exeter, 12 ; Roman, 13 ; Witeuagemot ;
13 ; Swegen at, 15 ; opposition to the
Conqueror, 16 ; siege by Saxons, 17 ;
Parliament, 18 ; siege by Stephen, 18 ;
dukes of, 19 ; Lancastrian, 19 ; Rich-
ard III. at, 19 ; Perkin Warbeck, 20 ;
siege by Western Rebels, 20 ; Cava-
liers and Puritans, 24 ; William of
Orange at, 25 ; ^Edalstan's monas-
tery, 27 ; Eadweard the Confessor,

27 ; foundation of see, 27 ; cathedral,

28 ; religious houses, 27, 30 ; bishops,

30 ; Puritan era, 33 ; mints, 35 ;

guilds, 36, 38; merchant adventurers,

39 ; worthies, 40
Exminster, 54
Exmouth, 47
Exmouth Warren, 49
Exon Domesday, 31

Fardell, 236

Ferrers family, 198

Foliott, Gilbert, 200

Filleigh, 103

Fitz of Fitzford, 185

Flavel, John, 276

Flitton oak, 102

Floyer Hayes, 44

Ford Abbey, 64

Ford House, 307

Ford, John, 288

Ford, Sir Henry, 288

Ford, Thomas, 32

Folk-lore, 339

Follett, Sir W. , 42

Fort Charles, 250

Fortescue family, 103

Fortescue, Sir John, 103

Fortescue, Sir Henry, 103

Fortescue, Sir Faithful, 104

Fortescue, Sir Edmund, 250

Fosseway, 5

Foster, Nathaniel, 237

Fremington, 125

Frithelstock Priory, 158

Fulford family, 324

Fulford, Great, 324

Gandy, James, 41
Gafulford, 8
Gale, Theophilus, 310
Garston, 248
Gates, Sir Thomas, 70
Gay, John, 124
Gereint, 7

Gibbs, Sir Vicary, 42
Gidleigh, 323
Gidley family, 323
Giffard family, 114
Gifford, Lord, 42
Gifford, William, 279
Gilbert family, 272
Gilbert, Sir Humphry,
Gilbert, Sir Adrian, 273
Giles, Sir Edward, 265
Gittisham, 81
Glanville family, 189
Glanville, Sir John, 189
Glanville, Serjeant, 189
Glanville, Joseph, 222
Godolphin, Sidney, 322
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 2&J
Great Fulford, 324
Greenway, 272
Greenway, John, 94

344

History of Devonshire.

Grenville family, 141
Grenville, Sir Richard, 141
Grenville, Sir Bevil, 142
Grenville, Sir Richard, 186
Grimspound, 329
Gubbinses, the, 177

Haccombe, 309

Hach Arundell, 253

Halberton, 97

Hals family, 252

Haldon, 58

Haldon House, 55

Hamo's Port, 203

Hankford, Sir William, 158

Hannaditches, Roman villa at, 72

Harberton, 265

Harding, Thomas, 130

Harford, 243

Harris family, 238

Harris, Sir W. S. , 222

Hart, S., 223

Hartland, 152 ; Abbey, 152

Hatherleigh, 162

Hawkins family, 208

Hawkins, Sir John, 208

Hawkins, Sir Richard, 208

Hawkins, William, 208

Hawley, John, 270

Haydon, B. R., 223

Hayman, Francis, 42

Heanton Punchardon , 127

Heanton Satchville, 165

Hearder, Jonathan, 223

Heavitree, 43

Hele, Elize, 236

Helef Sir John, 238

Hemyock, 88

Hembury, tradition touching, 285

Hembury Fort, 82

Hennock, 318

Herle, Sir Wm., 130

Herrick, Robert, 266

Hieritha, St., 104, 113

Highweek, 305

Hilliard, Nicholas, \\

Kingston Down, 185

Hody, Sir John, 302

Hoker, John, 40

Holbeton, 244

Holcombe Rogus, 100

Holdsworth family, 276

Holne, 290

Holne Chase, 284

Holsworthy, 163

Holy Street mill, 323

Honeychurch, 164

Honiton, 79 ; corporate seal, 80 ; lace, 80

Hooker, Richard, 40

Hope Cove, Armada wreck in, 252

Horwood, 149

Howard, Lady, 186

Hubbastow, 147

Hudson, Thomas, 42
Hughes, Georg'e, 247
Huguenots at Exeter, 42
Huguenots at Barnstaple, 121
Huguenots at Plymouth and Stone

house, 228
Humphry, Ozias, 81
Hunter's Lodge, folk-lore, 78

Iddesleigh, 164

Ideford, 290

Ilfracombe, 128 ; St. Nicholas Chapel,

128 ; attempted invasion, 129
Ilton, 249
Ilsington, 288

Inscribed Stones, 179, 238, 318
Instow, 148
Ireland, Dean, 279
Isabella de Fortibus, 37, 92
I sea Dunmoniorum, 13
Iscanus, Josephus, 40
Ivybridge, 243

Jackson, Wm., 42
Jacobstow, 165
Jewel, Bishop, 130
Joseph, Michael, 149
Judhel of Totnes, 257

Kelly, 193

Kempthorne, Sir John, 244

Kenn, 54

Kennaway family, 43

Kennicott, Benjamin, 262

Kent's Hole, 2, 291

Kerswill, Kings and Abbots, 310

Killerton, 46

King, Lord Chancellor, 42

Kingsbridge, 245; climate, 248

Kingsley, Canon, 285

Kingsteignton, 310

Kirton spinning, 107

Kitley, 239

Kitto, John, 222

Knowstone, 99

Landkey, 125

Landscore, 10

Lane, John, 88

Langton, Archbishop, 40

Leach, W. E., 222

Leofric, first Bishop of Exeter, 27

Lethbridge, John, 308

Lifton, 192

' Little Choky Bone,' 69

Littleham, 47

Lundy Island, 137 ; antiquities, 137 ;

piracies, 138
Lustleigh, 318
Lydford, 172 ; mint, 174 ; law, 176 ,

prison, 177
Lye, Sir E., 259
Lye, Edward, 262

Index.

345

Lyfing, Bishop, 182
Lyneham, 239
Lynmouth, 134
Lynton, 133

Malborough , 249

Mamhead, 315

Manatbn, 325

Maristow, 200

Marwood, Thomas, 81

Marisco family, 137

Marlborough, Duke of, 66

Mayflower, the, 215

Maynard, Sir John, 190

Mayne, John, 163 ' „•-

Merton, 161

Meavy, 197

Merivale Bridge, 328

Merivale, J. H. , 42

Mining antiquity of, 3 •' .'

Modbury, 240 ; Priory, 240 ; fair, 242

Mohuns Ottery, 83

Molland Bottreaux, 102

Molton, North, 102

Molton, South, ici

Monkleigh, 158

Monk, General, 160

Monmouth, Duke of, 62, 69

Montagu, Col., 247

Morebath, 99

Moreman, Dr., 153

Moretonhampstead, 320

Morice, Sir Wm., 41

Moridunum, 71

Morthoe, 134

Morte Stone, 135

Netherton, 82

Newcomin, Thomas, 275

Newlands, 125

Newenham Abbey, 61

Newport Episcopi, 124

Newton, 305

Newton, clays, 308

Newton Poppleford, 52

Newton St. Gyres, 109

Norman Conquest, 17

Northam, 147

Northam Burrows, 148

Northcote family, 45

Northcote, Sir John, 45

Northcote, James, 223

North Devon, ancient roads in, 115

North Devon, Armada fleet, 143

North Lew, 162

North Molton, 102

North Tawton, 170

Nutwell, 53

Nymets, the, 114

Ockley, Simon, 42
Ogham inscriptions, 179
Okehampton, 167 ; castle, 168

Old Port, 241

Orange, landing of William of, 302

Ordulf, 181

Oreston caves, 237

Otterton Priory, 76

Otterton cartulary, 74

Ottery St. Mary, 84 ; college, 84 ;

church, 85 ; school, 86
Oxenham family, 172
Oxenham, John, 172
Oxenham Omen, the, 171

Packhorses, 116

Page of Plymouth, 189

Paignton, 300

Palk family, 55

Palaeolithic Man, i, 60, 291

Pancrasweek, 165

Parkers, Earls of Morley, 233

Parliament House, 304

Parliaments, Tinners', 330

Peamore, 54

Peryam, Lord Chief Baron, 41

Peter Pindar, 248

Petre, Sir William, 289

Petrockstow, 165

Pilgrim Fathers, the, 215

Pilton Priory, 120

Pinhoe, curious tradition, 15

Pixies, 339

Plymouth, 201 ; prehistoric relics, 202 ;
development out of the Suttons, 204 ;
the Black Prince, 206 ; invasions,
206 ; Katherine of Aragon, 207 ; in
the days of Elizabeth, 209 ; the
Armada, 211 ; the colonization of
New England, 213 ; siege of, 216 ;
worthies of, 222

Plymouth Company, 213

Plymouth China Works, 247

Plymouth Dock, old name of Devon-
port, 225

Plympton, 230 ; Black Prince at, 231 ;
Castle, 232 ; Priory, 233

Plymstock, 237

Plymtree screen, 90

Pole, Sir Wm. , 68

Pollard family, 149

Poltimore, 46

Polsloe Priory, 44

Pomeroy family, 263

Pomeroy, Sir Thomas, 264

Poole Priory, 253

Portle mouth, 252

Potheridge, 160

Powderham Castle, 55

Pre- Roman civilization in Devon, 4

Prideaux family, 82

Prideaux, Bishop, 243

Prince Town, 333

Princess Henrietta Anne, 24

Prout, Samuel, 223

Prouz family, 318

346

History of Devonshire.

Pullein, Cardinal, 40
Puritanism, 31
Pynes, 45

Quick, John, 222

Radford, murder of Nicholas, 67

Radford, 238

Ralegh family, 49

Ralegh, Sir Walter, 50

Ralegh, Bishop, 125

Rattenbury, Jack, 73

Rattery, 266

Red deer, 102

Redvers, Baldwin de, 167

Religious Houses, 27, 30, 44, 61, 64, 76,
83, 89, 99, zoo, 117, 120, 152, 158,
179, 184, 205, 233, 240, 251, 253, 257,
266, 294

Revelstoke, 237

Reynell family, 306

Reynolds, John, 40

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 235

Ring-in-the-Mire, 82

Risdon, the chorographer, *6c

Rogers family, 237

Romansleigh, 103

Roman intercourse, 5

Rougemont, 17

Russell, Lord, 22

Salcombe, 249

Salter, William, 81

Saltram, 233

Sampford Courtenay, 21

Sampford Peverell, 97

Sampford Spiney, 197

Sativola, St., 27

Savery, Thomas, 241

Saxon colonization and conquest, 7

Saxon place-names, 10

Seaton, 72

Sewers, the, 249

Seymour, Sir Edward, 264

Shaldon, 313

Sharpham heronry, 266

Shaugh, 197

Shebbear, 165

Sheepstor, 197

Shillingford, 54

Shobrooke, 109

Shower, Sir B., 41

Shute, 67

Shute, John, 41

Sidbury, 78

Sidmouth, 74 ; residence of the Queen,

Sidwell, St., 27
Silverton, 90
Sir Ferumbras, 336
Sithric of Tavistock, 17
Slade, Abbot, 282
Slamiing, Sir Nicholas, 198

Slapton, 253

Sokespitch family, 53

Southcott, Johanna, 81

South Molton, 101

South Molton, Cavalier rising, ici

South Tawton, 171

South Zeal, 171

Spanish Barn, the, 297

Spinster's Rock, 324

Speke family, 45

Splatt Cove! legend of, 251

St. Aubyn family, 224

St. Giles-in-the-Wood, 159

St. Leonards, 43

St. Mary Clyst, 53

St. Mary Clyst, battle at, 23

St. Mary's Church, 293

St. Mary de Marisco, 44 ,

St. Thomas, 23, 44

Stadio Deventia, 202

Staddiscombe, 237

Stapledon, Bishop, 278

Starcross, 58

Stephens, E. B. , 42

Stevenstone, 159

Stockleigh, English and Pomeroy, 109

Stoke Canon, 44

Stoke Damerel, 223

Stokenham, 252

Stoke St. Nectan, 153

Stonehouse, 226

Stone, Nicholas, 41

Stone Period, 3

Strachleigh, 243

Strodes of Newnham, 235

Strode, Richard, 177

Strode, William, 234

Stukely family, 153

Stukely, Thomas, 153

Stukely, Sir Lewis, 153

Sully, Sir John, 164

Sutton, old name for Plymouth, 204

Sydenham, 192

Swymbridge, 104

Tamarweorth, 200, 204

Tamerton Foliott, 199

Tavistock, 179 ; Abbey, 181 ; press,

183 ; mines, 185
Tawton, South, 171
Tawton, North, 170
Tawstock, 125
Teignbridge, 306]
Teignweek, 306
Teigngrace, 310

Teignmouth, 311 ; burnt by French, 312
Tenures, peculiar, 44, 49,' 53, 76, 109,

165, 253
Termolus, 103
Teutonic mark, 10
Teutonic words, 338
Teutonic folk-lore, 340
Thorverton, 45

Index.

347

Thurleston, 249

Tindal, Matthew, 199

Tiverton, 91 ; fires, 95 ; school, 94

Topsham, 52

Torbay, 292

Torquay, 291

Tor Brian, 289

Torre, 293

Torre Abbey, 294

Torre Mohun free bench, 298

Torrington, 154 ; Margaret of Rich-
mond at, 155 ; defeat of Hopton by
Cromwell and Fairfax, 155 ; common
rights, 157

Totnes, 254 ; legendary history, 254 ;
mint, 256 ; Castle, 257 ; Priory, 257 ;
guild merchant, 258 ; worthies, 259 ;
'rows', 262 ;

Totnes shore, 255

Tracy tomb at Morthoe, 135

Trelawny, Bishop, 30

Tremayne family, 192

Uffculme, 88
Ugborough, 244
Ugbrooke, 316
Umberleigh, 113
Underbill, Wm., 21
Upton Pyne, 45

Valley of Rocks, 133

Villenage in the 1410 century, 282

Wadham, Nicholas and Dorothy, 77

Walchentone, 194

Walkhampton, 194

Walker's ' Sufferings of the Clergy,' 33

Walrond family, 88

Warelwast, Bishop, 28

Weare, 52

Wear Giffard, 159

Wembury, 237

Westcote, Thomas, 109

Western Rebellion, 21

Westward Ho, 148

Whitbonrne, Richard, 48

Whitchurch, 193

White ale, 247

Whiddon, Sir John, 322

Widecombe, 285

Widecombe thunder storm, 286

Wiganbeorche, 204

Wiger, Sir John, 45

Williams, Thomas, 243

Winscott, 150

Winkleigh, 165

Wise family, 192

Wise, Sir Thomas, 224

Wistman's Wood, 333

Withycombe Ralegh, 49

Wolborough, 305

Wolcott, Dr., 248

Wonford, 43

Woodbury, 53

Woodland, 243

Woollcombe family, 236, 239

Woollen manufacture, 36

Worth, 96

Wrey, Sir Bourchier, practical engineer

ing, 118
Wynfrid, 108

Yealmpton, 238
Yewe, 109
Yonge family, 69
Yonge, James, 222

Zeal Monachorum, 172
Zeal, South. 171

Elliot Stock, Paternoster Ri/w, London.

St. Michael's College
Library

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